All Things Work Together for Good

I miss Paul Harvey.  Back when I was farming with my Dad, he would come pick me up on the tractor and tell me it was 'bean time.'  We would drive into town and go to the Texaco station on the corner of Main Street.  They had the best chicken fingers ever!  Gas station food is good stuff, I tell ya.  We would drive back to the farm and turn down Durio Cemetary Road and park underneath the shadows of the sprawling limbs of a giant live oak tree that shaded the tombstones of a family cemetery that contains the remains of soldiers that fought in the Civil War.

We'd roll down the windows, open up our white paper bags of chicken fingers and fries and open up the little packets of ketchup, squirting it on the bag to dip our chicken fingers in.  While we ate our chicken, we'd always listen to Paul Harvey's News & Commentary that came on a noon.  We especially liked a segment called "The Rest of the Story," where he'd tell an interesting story about someone or something that had an interesting twist at the end or you'd learn something that you didn't know.  Paul Harvey would close with..."And now you know - the rest of the story!"

I want to tell a similar story today that I read on the website Mentalfloss.  It involves a tragic story about actress/entertainer Jayne Mansfield.  In the summer of 1967 Jayne Mansfield, her driver and her lawyer and three of her children were traveling from Biloxi, Mississippi at 2:30 a.m. en route to New Orleans for a television interview the next morning. They were driving the Buick Electra 225 fast and came upon an 18 wheeler.  It was shrouded by mosquito fog from another truck and they never saw it.  They drove right up underneath the back of the big rig, shearing off the cab and killing the 3 adults instantly. Amazingly, the 3 kids sleeping in the back seat all survived with minor injuries.  If you watch the television program, Law and Order, you'll know one of Jayne Mansfield's kids, Mariska Hargitay, who plays a detective in the crime series.  She was 3 years old at the time and survived the accident and still has a scar from it.

The tragic fatal accident led the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to mandate that all 18 wheeler trailers to be fitted with "Mansfield Bars" to keep cars from running up underneath the back of the trailers.  I'm sure you've seen them on the Interstate.  There is a photo of them below:

Image Credit

While it was too late to save Jayne Mansfield and the adult occupants of her vehicle, the "Mansfield Bars" have saved countless lives.  Something good came from something very bad.  If man can take a horrible thing and make something good out of that tragic situation, how much more can God?  It reminds me of Romans 8:28 " And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

All things means good things AND bad things.  If you love God and are called according to His purpose, He will cause all things - both the good and the bad - to work together for good.  This serves as a good reminder to me when I'm going through rough times.  God is working.  I may not understand it, and it may not be in my timing, but I need to be patient and trust Him.  He's working it all together for good.

And now you know the rest of the story...