This is the year our three married daughters spend Christmas with their in-laws.  Our youngest daughter, Grace, who is unmarried, and who has traditionally came home for Christmas, informed us a couple weeks ago that she is scheduled to work both Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas and, thus, would be staying in Nashville for Christmas.  Then, much to our surprise and delight, she told us last weekend that she would be off work Tuesday and Wednesday of this week and would be coming home Monday night!

Unfortunately, thinking I had no reason to do otherwise, I scheduled work related meetings for Tuesday and Wednesday that prevented me from spending any quality time with Grace while she was home.  But, before she left early Wednesday afternoon, I decided to take a couple hours off and come home for lunch and spend at least a little time with her.  On the drive home I prayed, “Lord, I am thankful that Grace could come home for a couple days, and I’m thankful for the little time I’ve been able to spend with her.  I just wish we’d been able to have more quality “father/daughter” time together.  Amen.”

Pulling into our driveway, I saw her car and remembered she had mentioned that her driver’s door window would not roll down.  I thought the problem was perhaps simply a blown fuse.  So, I unlocked her car and found the fuse box under the steering column. and, after getting down on the ground and contorting my body into an unnatural position, I determined that the fuse was not blown.  I reinstalled the cover, and then began the process of reversing my motions to get up off the ground.  

Well, at my age (and size), that’s no longer easy to do.  I suppose I used the door arm rest to leverage myself up and, in doing so, I hit the door lock button.  Without thinking, I shut the door and, of course, the keys were in the car.  Grace’s spare key was in Nashville, Tennessee.  

Having paid outrageously for a locksmith in the past, I turned to YouTube for advice on how to unlock a locked car door without a key. Obviously, there must be many Subaru Outback owners who have locked their keys in their cars because there were several videos to view.  I learned all I needed were two tools:  an inflatable pillow called an air jack, which, when deflated, can be inserted between the door post and the door, and then inflated by pumping a bulb by hand; and a long crooked rod with a hook on the end, and “presto”, the door is opened.

Obviously, Grace wasn’t going anywhere soon so I invited her to go to the hardware store with me and purchase the air jack.  Forty minutes later we were back home.  She inserted and inflated the pillow while I crafted a coat hanger with a hook to fit between the gap.  The coat hanger was about six inches too short and too flexible.  I found four one-foot long, one-eighth inch diameter rods that I had saved from somewhere (because you never know when you might need something like that), and I connected them with electrical tape.  But, they were too stiff to make a hook on the end.  

Grace’s keys had slid off the console onto the passenger’s seat and the buttons on the fob were facing upwards.  Grace had the ingenious idea that we try to use the rod to push the unlock button on the fob.  We relocated to the passenger side and reinserted and inflated the air jack.  The rod reached the fob with about three inches remaining on the outside of the door – too little to hold onto and control the rod’s movement – but still enough to grab onto with a pair of pliers.  After another thirty minutes of maneuvering, getting just the right kinks in the rod, and taking turns, I was able to land the end of the rod on the fob’s unlock button and apply enough downward pressure to release the lock!  Hallelujah! Amen!  

Grace had a five hour drive ahead of her so she hurried and packed her things into her car.  After hugs and goodbyes, she headed home and I headed back to the office.  On the way in, I thought about the grace I’d just received, about how I’d spent an unexpected extra two and a half hours with my daughter, working together solving a problem, each of us gaining some experience and, best of all, some valuable “father/daughter” time together.  I had prayed for that time, and God delivered, not in a way that I could have expected, but He delivered none the less.

“Heavenly Father, thank You for answering prayers in unexpected ways.  Thank You for this opportunity for Grace and I to work together, for the time to talk and enjoy each other’s company.    And, thank You for the grace to know of Your presence in the moment.  Amen.”

(Unexpected Grace was first published on the blog Reflections of a Lay Catholic)

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