There are so many things that we can thank God for….things that others might call a “coincidence”. But how much better to see God’s preserving hand in these mishaps that we experience.
I remember one time when I was setting off down the hill from our place, out onto the road and speeding up as the road opened up. The road was narrow and windy, and to take the corner at the bottom, I cut across the corner and then saw another car approaching.
I automatically put my foot on the brake so I could navigate back to my own side of the road, when horrors! The car spun around about three times out of control, flew across a deep ditch and landed up against a large tree facing the way I had come, with a gentle thud. It had all happened so quickly that I hardly realised what had happened!
The other car passed by (he must have seen it all happen), and backed up and asked if I was alright. By this time, I had felt around and decided that nothing was broken on me, and there were no obvious breakages on the car. The windows were all intact, the motor turned off, and the door opened. But outside was a different story….the wheels didn’t look right, and horrors, the tyres were torn off! So when the man asked if was alright, I asked if he could run me back up the hill so I could find my husband and tell him what had happened which he did. I never saw that man again, and often wondered if he came that way regularly!
That was the end of my part in the story….the men folk got the car back across the ditch, and put new tyres on it and it was able to be driven home without a scratch on the body. Amazing!
It often gave me the shivers thinking about what could have happened to me…I could have ended up in a wheelchair with a broken back, or been in the hospital for weeks recuperating from injuries, or even worse, could have been killed. Truly the Lord sent His angels to preserve me that day!!
Needless to say, I never went too fast down that hill again! But what a way to learn a lesson I should have known anyway!
There are many ways that God preserves His people, and we should never cease to give Him thanks for this every day….we have no idea how many times He keeps us safe from things that we don’t see coming.