As told in A Traveling Grandma’s Guide to Israel, my travel memoir of nine great trips there over forty years, I’ve had several unexplained experiences of divine help. Both times, the young woman with me and I were going to accommodations in locations we weren’t familiar with when strangers stepped in.

The first time, Cindy and I had left a bus in Eilat with our luggage aware it was three to four blocks to our destination, but which direction? A smiling, neatly dressed young man approached us stating, “You are going to The Shelter. I will get you there.”

He reached out and took our heaviest pieces of luggage and within minutes brought us to the gate of the lovely enclosed garden surrounding the hostel.

A week later we were on a crowded bus in Tel Aviv/Yafo/Joppa riding from the central bus station to the sea. We knew our hostel, Bet Immauel, was among fascinating historic buildings ten minutes walk from the sea, but there was a welter of such structures.

No one wants to leave a bus too soon or late while hauling luggage. We chatted quietly trying to guess when to leave the bus when a pleasant Dutch-looking blonde woman dressed in blue and white came up the aisle from several rows back. She said, “You’re staying at Bet Immanuel. Follow me.”

We did.

After leaving the bus, she kindly walked in front leading us to the hostel’s beautiful tree and flower-filled garden and front door.

If I had burst into song, it would have been the one I heard Ethel Waters sing in person years ago, “His eye is on the sparrow, And I know He watches me.”

If I had quoted a Bible verse, it would have been Hagar’s confession in Genesis 16, “Thou God seest me,” or the Matthew 10 verses, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.”

Our loving faithful God cares about every detail of our lives and is there to help.