We’ve visited what I call Papa’s Pipeline before. No, not PapaJ’s pipeline, but our Heavenly Papa’s Pipeline. Yep, “Papa” is about the best English translation we have for the word “Abba”. This is my way of describing how the blessing thing works. According to James, “All good things come from above…”. Papa initiates good things. These blessings – spiritual, emotional, physical, and material – are “piped” into our lives. We are then able and expected to pass blessings along to others.

I recently wrote about a great tire place in Georgia that replaced a shredded Bridgestone tire and got us back on the road very quickly. The only problem was that I still had Bridgestone tires on Tonka 02! Even though they weren’t on the recall list, they should have been (IMHO). I’d gone through three shredded tire episodes in just a few months.

On the second of September, I headed out for five weeks of concerts and visits with friends and family. Covered more than 6,500 miles and sang in quite a few churches, large and small. A dozen people came to know Jesus. Got to have brief visits with brothers, a cousin, a nephew, a son/daughter-in-law/granddaughter, my folks, and many people who regularly read Inside Out.

However, both Pat and I were pretty uneasy when I pulled out of our place. Even though two of my tires were pretty new, all four of them were considered unsafe by us, based on our own personal experience. But, a new set of tires would have made a fairly deep cut into the funds allotted for the trip. What to do, what to do, what to do.

I decided to head out and trust the Lord to give me guidance and direction. Well, I hadn’t gone more than a couple of miles at Interstate speeds when I noticed Tonka’s front end shaking whole bunches. Our son, Tim, had graciously installed the spare on the truck the night before. We had no way to check the balance. Sure enough, it was about six ounces of lead away from proper balance.

I called Pat on the cell phone. She found a place (Labor Day weekend, no less) just a few miles up the road. They balanced the tire and everything ran much more smoothly.

Growing more concerned about the safety factor than the cost, on Monday, I started calling tire places to see about getting a whole new set of Michelin tires (my personal favorites). I tried every day, in just about every town. No one had the 15 inch tires I needed because of the recall.

After a few days, I was scheduled to visit a couple (Grace and Rex) in Goshen, IN, whom I married 22 years ago. Well, I didn’t marry them, I performed the ceremony so they could marry each other. They now have three grown kids. This made me feel a bit older. We ate at the Country Buffet. It was so neat to catch up on each other’s lives. Unfortunately, I couldn’t even spend the night. The concert schedule required me to keep heading on down the road.

Saturday, I spent quality time with one of my brothers. We went to the Field Museum in Chicago. They have the skeleton of the largest T-Rex dinosaur ever captured – Sue. We laughed and reminisced. Don strongly resembles the mayor of Chicago and is often mistaken for him. I introduced him to folks as “my brother, the mayor”.

On Sunday morning, I sang at a good friend’s church in Lansing, IL. Don and his son, Jon, joined me for the service. The last song Don and I heard our Grandma (of “Grandma’s Songs”) sing was, “He Touched Me”. Her hearing was very poor, and she was struggling with the pitch. We went to the platform and helped her sing the song. Well, Don joined me at the end of the concert, and we sang “He Touched Me” together. That brought tears to my eyes.

Before the service, while at the motel in Lansing, I fired up my G3 computer. There was an e-mail from Grace in Goshen. She said that before I ever got there, she’d felt impressed by the Lord that “Jerry needs tires”. Then she added an apology. She said that she believed the Lord wanted her to pay for them! We’d been so involved catching up and talking, that she let it slide by. She also said that one of her sons, sorta named after me, wanted to help with the cost. Jeremy (Jerry Meyer) works very hard for his money. He gets up before the sun and works at a golf course.

I sent an e-mail back and thanked them both for their sensitivity, kindness, and obedience. I then looked in the phone book in Lansing under “tires”. The first place I called “just happened” to have four Michelin tires, exactly what I wanted, in my size. They put my name on them. After singing, eating lunch with my pastor friend and his wife, they led me to the tire store.

In a couple of hours, I was on the road, front end alignment checked out, heading for many happy and fulfilling experiences. Does our Heavenly Papa care about our needs, including our material needs? Yes, He does. As I left the tire store, I looked up and saw the bright yellow water tower with the “smiley face” and black bow tie looming over me. I’ve never much been into the whole “smiley face” thing, but certainly thought it was appropriate right then.

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