A Taxi in Spandau

A Taxi in Spandau: When God Arranges the Way Home Before You Ask

A Devotional by Ashley Martin

Key Scripture

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you." —Psalm 32:8 NIV.​

I was twenty-two years old, studying abroad in Berlin, and I had done the one thing every study abroad advisor warns you against. I lost track of time. It was my first time out of the country, and I was in awe of the entire experience.

I had spent the evening away from my group, having dinner with a family friend, and the conversation was so good that I never once checked the clock. By the time I said my goodbyes, I had missed the last bus back to my dorm. Our housing was in a suburb a little outside the city, and buses stopped running at eight. This was also long before anyone I knew carried a cell phone. I was alone, it was dark, and I had no way to call for help.

So I did the only thing I knew to do. I stopped and prayed.

My gut, a prompting I've come to trust as God's leading, told me to take the subway to the closest stop I could reach. That stop was Spandau. I had ridden the Berlin subways for weeks by then and trusted them, so I got on. When I stepped off the train into the night, I took a deep breath, said another prayer, and held out my hand for a taxi.

A driver pulled up and rolled down his window. I asked him, "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" He smiled and said yes. I described the highway and the neighborhood where I was staying, and he agreed to take me. As I climbed in, he quickly picked up on my thick Southern accent and asked where I was from.

"Alabama," I told him.

He said his sister lived in Columbus, Georgia. I sat there in the back of that taxi in disbelief, because Columbus is the city where I was born. I said a silent thank you right there in the dark. God had stepped into a stranger's cab, thousands of miles from home, and carried me the rest of the way.

I am forty-seven now, and that night in Berlin is still one of the clearest pictures I have of God taking care of me. When I get discouraged, or when my faith goes quiet for a season, I go back to Spandau. I remember the driver, his smile, and the sister in Georgia. I remember that I was never actually alone at that taxi stand. He was already there, counseling me with his loving eye on me, already arranging the way home before I ever asked.

Reflection Question:

Think of a time you felt stranded, whether physically or emotionally. Can you look back now and see the ways God was already arranging your way home?

Prayer:

Father, thank you for going ahead of us into the dark places before we ever ask you to. Thank you for counseling us with your loving eye on us, even when we cannot see you working. When we feel stranded, remind us of the times you have already carried us home. In Jesus' name, amen.

Ashley Martin wrote her way out of the wreckage recovery leaves behind and into a book about it, Lost No More: A Daily Path to God in the Midst of Your Deepest Valleys, built on surrender, prayer, and service. Twelve years sober now, she loves a good trip abroad almost as much as she loves the slower pace of the historic Alabama town she calls home, where she and her husband, West, are raising two kids who keep her humble in ways sobriety never could. You can find more about Ashley at www.ashleymartinministry.com.