I spent Shabbat at my friend’s house.

So there I am, lying in my bed getting comfy and close to dozing off when my friend (we’ll call him Ploni) enters the room quietly and slips into his bed in the guest room that we are sharing.

Ploni had a long drive that day, so he fell asleep within a couple of minutes.

I could tell he was asleep because there was a sudden explosion from his side of the room that sounded like a tank engine stalling.  I’ve never heard such snoring in my life!  It was actually startling at first.

My previous experience with snorers is that:

A) It’s not their fault
B) They can’t control the snoring
C) Even if you nudge them or tell them to turn over, the snoring comes back relatively quickly

So instead of pushing, tapping, nudging, shoving, kicking, or calling my friend to stop snoring, I simply rolled up my sheets, blanket, and pillow and went downstairs to sleep on the couch.

The next morning, Hashem choreographed things in such a way that Ploni had no idea I had left the room, and thus was not embarrassed by my leaving due to his snoring.

That afternoon, I went back to the same couch to do some Torah study while everyone else remained at the dining room table discussing politics.  It was difficult for me to leave the dining room conversation because we had a staunch Democrat with a huge brain and a staunch Republican who works in Washington.  Yet I needed to read the parsha.

So I’m sitting there studying Torah when the hostess walks in to have a nap in the room in which I was studying. Despite the hostess’s manners in not interrupting my learning, I kept losing focus because I could still hear the fascinating political discussion taking place in the dining room.

Every time I started getting focused on what I was reading, I would be drawn back into their political debate.  And I thought, “Hashem!  I pulled myself out of the political conversation so that I could learn Your Torah.  But even here on the couch I can’t seem to focus.”

That’s when the hostess started snoring.

Except that this time instead of getting up and leaving, I smiled and started chuckling at G-d’s kindness.

You see, now I was being given white noise that drowned out the political debate in the other room, but was gentle and quiet enough to let me study!

And THEN I realized that not only was Hashem doing me a kindness by giving me white noise to help me study, Hashem was teaching me a lesson in emunah (trust in Hashem)!

The lesson, I think, is that just as the hostess’ snoring was a gift for my benefit in the afternoon, so too was my friend Ploni’s snoring a gift for my benefit the night before - even though at first glance I may have been slightly frustrated that I had to sleep on the couch.  So retroactively, Hashem taught me to have more emunah next time something doesn’t go as planned.

Usually we hear stories of a person who was late to work on September 11th, and thus spared the terrorist attack, or other such miraculous stories of Divine Providence.

Yet, I think it crucial to recognize that Hashem is guiding our life every moment!  Not just in times of trauma and great peril.

And furthermore, if we put in our effort (like pulling out of the political debate in order to study Torah) then Hashem is right there to assist us along the way.