Stuck on the Road: Scotland! Part 3

September 10, 2021

Not only so, but wealso glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;perseverance...

~ Romans 5:3 NIV ~

The first official day in Scotland dawned bright and clear. Because of the thunderstorm, we may have lost all of the eastern portion of our Scotland trip, but we had an extra day to enjoy Inverness and the beautiful Loch Ness. As it turned out, that was one of the prettiest days of our entire stay in Scotland, a day we might have otherwise spent, as per our itinerary, in travel. The town is beautiful and well worthy of a two-day visit, rather than a one-day visit. Besides, that gave us an extra day to sight the famous Loch Ness Monster!

Unfortunately, he was asleep the entire time we were at the Loch...

There was only one problem: On the morning of our departure, the wayward luggage still hadn't arrived. My wife called the airline in Edinburough, and the person she talked to was delighted to report that our luggage would arrive in Inverness that same afternoon! The only problem was, we wouldn't still be in Inverness that afternoon. We would be on the Isle of Skye...

The airline promised to get our luggage to Portray, the city on the Isle of Skye where we would be staying; but unfortunately it wouldn't be until the following day... One more day without our luggage ... Would it ever catch up to us? At least it made packing the car a lot easier!

Nonetheless, we felt joyeous as we set out from Inverness. After all, we had survived thus far without our luggage, what was one extra day? Besides, it was another lovely day, and the early start would put us in Portray early enough for us to do some sightseeing in the afternoon!

Unfortunately that plan would also soon fail...

We arrived in good time on the Isle of Skye and set out on the only road to Portray. Imagine our dismay just two miles in when we were forced to come to a complete standstill. We had no idea what was wrong, but for as far as we could see in the distances, the cars were all stopped, and there were no cars coming from the opposite direction. That could only mean that the only road to our destination was ... blocked!

I eventually got out and walked forward about two miles before coming to the reason behind that long line of cars. There was a bad accident, including a rolled-over car, blocking both lanes. And the line of cars from the opposite direction seemed to be as long as the one we were in.

Once back in the car we prayed for the occupants of those cars, and then we waited. One hour went by. Two hours. Three hours. Still nothing was moving... Down below, we could see the coastline of the island. There appeared to be a tiny road of sorts down there, following the shoreline; but we could see, even from this distance, that it was blocked with cars. That could only mean that it wasn't wide enough for cars to pass (as is often the case in Scotland), and the cars coming from both directions to try and bypass the accident had succeeded in completely blocking this little trail as well...

By this time our "nice day" had also passed. Clouds were billowing in and it had turned cold. What would we do?

The police eventually managed to get that little trail down below clear of cars, and then they began escorting cars, a few at a time, along that muddy trail to the other side of the blocked highway. It was a slow, tedious 3 mile trip, but after two more hours, we finally found ourselves on the other side.

No, we didn't make it to Portray in time to do any exploring that afternoon, and besides, the weather wasn't nice enough anyway. After having been locked up in our car all day, however, we did feel like a walk and some supper, so after waiting for a break in the rain, we made our way to the harbour where we found something to eat and perhaps the prettiest sunset we've ever seen. The day wasn't a total right off! No, we didn't have our luggage, and no, we hadn't been able to explore this beautiful island, but God had blessed us with something so breathtaking that it made up for the rest...

That's what God does! He never said we wouldn't have problems. He simply told us to trust that He will make something beautiful out of our troubles. That's what he had been doing all along on this less-than-ideal, nothing-going-according-to-plan Scotland trip. No matter what we were "robbed" of, God gave us something beautiful in return. We were learning the truth of Romans 5:3-5: "Not only so, but wealso glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;perseverance, character; and character, hope.And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." (NIV), and it was with a smile on our faces that we retired for the night.

It's true, however, that we couldn't help but wonder what else could possibly go wrong with this ill-fated trip... We wouldn't know the answer to that, however, until the next morning...

In His love,
Rob Chaffart

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