Tonight Joey and I stopped at the gas station to put gas in the car. It was windy and cold outside so I was very happy that Joey offered to fill the car up. I forgot to push the button that opens the fuel door (a feature on this car that I am not use to) so he tapped on my window. I smiled and pushed the button but nothing happened. I pushed it again and again but the fuel door would not pop open so I got out of the car to try and help him. There was ice all over the ground. It was windy. “This really sucks” I thought to myself.

We tried pushing the fuel door really hard, pushing the button a hundred more times, pushing a key in the side of the door, pushing a key in the side of the door while pushing the button…we tried everything we could think of. We have the scratch marks to prove it too. Joey then suggested we go home and he’d try to get it open. I didn’t really want to go home because what could we do there? I then started thinking about work tomorrow and what I was going to do with hardly any gas and 4 kids to see and before my thoughts took over I said a quick little prayer.

We both got back in the car and started brainstorming how to open the stupid door. I suggested we get hot water and pour it over the door just in case it was frozen shut. We both knew it wasn’t frozen but it was worth a shot, right? So I went into the gas station to ask for hot water. I explained to them my problem and they said “isn’t there a button in the car door that you push?” Do I look like an idiot?

They gave me a cup full of hot/warm water and I dumped it on the fuel door and we started the whole process of trying to open it again. Then someone pulled up next to us and saw what we were doing and asked “is it frozen?” We told him “no” and explained our problem. He then came over and tried to help. After a couple of tries he said “sometimes there is an emergency handle in the trunk to open the fuel door”. We looked in the trunk and sure enough there was a handle that said:

Fuel Filler Door Release – EMERGENCY HANDLE

We pulled it and the fuel door opened. Wow! Who knew? We thanked the kind stranger and I thanked God for sending him to us. I also thought about paying for his gas but before I could say anything he was gone.

I wanted to post this for a couple of reasons:

1. So you’ll know what to do if this ever happens to you
2. So you can share this handy tip with a stranger who seems to be having trouble
3. To show God is good even in the small stuff