About two weeks towards the end of 2016, I observed one of the tyres of my wife’s car had lost some air and I flagged it with her, asking her to stop by at the garage to have it looked at but she mentioned that she had observed it and gotten it inflated to the right pressure a few days earlier. So, on the morning of Saturday 30th December 2016, I decided to take care of it myself because she had mentioned that she had a couple of places and errands to run, thus I needed to finish up quickly.

I got out the spanner, jack and tyre wedges and began the job. The objective I set out to accomplish was jack up the tyre, remove the tyre, take it in my car for repairs. While slackening the nuts, I observed they were too loose, I made a mental note to tighten the nuts of the other tyres as well when I returned from the garage. While at the garage, it was observed that there had been a puncture on the said tyre and that was patched up.

Upon my return, I put back the tyre, locked it in with the nuts and jacked down the vehicle because I immediately remembered that I needed to tighten the nuts of the other three tyres, without realizing I hadn’t tightened the nuts of the very tyre I set out to replace in the first place. The process of tyre replacement in this context was to:

• Wedge the tyres.
• Slacken the nuts.
• Jack the car up.
• Remove the tyre.
• Fix or replace with spare.
• Lock in the tyres with the nuts, but not tightly because the tyres would keep spinning while car is jacked up.
• Jack down the car.
• Tighten the nuts very firmly.

After jacking down the car, I forgot to complete that last activity of tightening the nuts, but rather tightened those of the other three tyres I had earlier observed were not very tight. I completed the job and took off the gloves. I was feeling like the man of the house, smiling bashfully! My wife did not go out until it was time for the 31st Night Service and we all returned with no issues. We all went out visiting in my car the next day.

On the 2nd January this year, she mentioned she had to go somewhere on Ada George Road to get a few things. I had earlier left the house for a meeting and was aware of where she was headed. I saw her drive past me in my meeting venue, so I decided to call and tease her saying, “Babe, this your trip to Ada George, I can really see you on Ada George.” We both laughed and she mentioned that she is hearing a noise from the car, which she thinks is coming from the side I had recently fixed. We agreed that when she got back, I’d take a second look. I did not realize the nuts had all loosened and were responsible for the sound she was hearing. In fact at some point she mentioned she stopped, came down, took a look round the car but did not observe anything out of place.

That trip took her from Ada George to D/Line, to Park N Shop on Aba Road, and on her way back she got a nudge in her heart to reduce her speed. So, she maintained 30 km/hr. While two minutes away from the house, on an otherwise busy road, my son asked for banana and she stopped to buy banana but found none of the bunches appealing enough and manoeuvred unto the road. Upon manoeuvring unto the road heading home the car began acting funny, she hit her brakes and immediately the tyre pulled off and the wheels slowly came to a stop. The tyre rolled into a tree and stopped, while the nuts just fell by the side. There was no oncoming vehicle on either side of the road. Help was readily available, like angels sent out to help God’s child. The guys who helped out were able to put the tyre back and tightened it just before I showed up to meet the kids telling me about the adventure they just witnessed. These kids of ours…

Suffice to say the negative possibilities that could have happened when she was driving at higher speeds were enormous, but I choose to remember the saving grace of our BIG GOD. I just want to thank God for protecting His own, in spite of our actions, inactions and even errors. He once again reminded us that He can take care of His own, and it is never about what we do. That is just the way our Father is. Praise God!