Car Over Cliff

When I was very young, our family of five went on a road trip to Bishop, California.  My two brothers and I were wedged in the back seat of our station wagon as we headed for the hills.  As we approached our destination, the terrain became more beautiful and stunning by the moment.  Each breathtaking view was exceeded by the next one right around the bend.  Many hundreds of feet below, we could see the thread of a river beneath the sheer cliff drop-offs to our right.  As we drove around one particular corner, our ewws and ahhs were interrupted by the high-pitched scream of my mother.  She had thrust herself from the passenger seat to the driver’s side, grabbed the wheel from my father, and yanked it with all her might to the left.  The car responded in kind, and veered sharply to the left and safely back onto the road.  Unbeknownst to us, by father had also been mesmerized by the views, and we were inches from driving right over the cliff to the eminent death of our entire family.  All were silent, and my father sheepishly thanked my mother.  My quiet mother had done something so sudden and out of character for her that I am convinced to this day the Lord had a hand in saving our lives.  Despite my young age, the shock of the experience imprinted this memory into my mind forever.

LESSON LEARNED:  The Lord can protect and even save us in sudden and significant ways, and we should be vigilant to heed His influence.

FEEDBACK:  HOW HAS THE LORD PROTECTED YOU OR YOUR FAMILY IN THE PAST? 

Dragonfly Vision Fixed

This past year, my vision deteriorated to the point of needing cataract surgery.  Though I was nervous for the procedure, I loved the crystal-clear vision I gained when my first eye was corrected.  I could suddenly see 20/15 in the distance.  Two weeks later, though, the surgery on my other eye didn’t seem to go so well, and the residual astigmatism in that eye left my vision blurry and me depressed.  After a few months, I was able to have a “light” Lasix procedure in the bad eye in an attempt to fix the astigmatism.  For days afterwards it didn’t seem to help, and my vision stayed blurry.  I was convinced my vision would never be the same.  My ophthalmologist told me to hang in there and continue to hope for the best.  I continued putting drops in my eyes three times a day, praying for a miracle that my vision would eventually clear in the bad eye.  One morning, as I stood up from my morning prayers, I looked out the window at the distant trees.  I thought I was seeing things, but I could swear I could see a dragonfly attached and resting on the tip of a branch about thirty feet away.  The odds of that seemed so unlikely, particularly with my usually blurry vision.  But then another dragonfly went fluttering by the other one at about the same distance away.  For the first time, I realized I could instantly see clearer than I had my whole life, and was found to have 20/15 vision in both eyes.  

LESSON LEARNED:  Healing is on the Lord’s timetable, and patience and gratitude are our necessary prerequisites.  

FEEDBACK:  WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH HEALING AND THE LORD'S BLESSINGS IN YOUR LIFE?

Barn Car Tire

In 1997, I finished my education at Washington University in St. Louis.  We packed the five kids and our suitcases into our two old cars, and headed cross-country from Missouri to my new job location in Tempe, AZ.  We made it as far as Kansas when the old station wagon my wife was driving suddenly started to jar.  We pulled over, and discovered that one of our front tires had developed a huge bulge and was ready to blow.  We were literally in the middle of nowhere, with cornfields as far as the eye could see in every direction.  But about a half of a mile back, we recalled passing a large barn-like building off the side of the highway which we could still see in the distance.  We turned around and nursed the car along to the exit, and pulled over to the barn.  It turned out to be a farm equipment co-op that fixed tractors and such.  The attendant in the barn scratched his head and told us we were unfortunately out of luck – that they only carried farming equipment and couldn’t help us with the car.  We were also told the nearest town was miles away.  With a prayer in my heart, I glanced around in vain as I considered what to do.  I suddenly noticed that way up by the rafters towards the roof, in the dim light about thirty feet above our heads, was a solitary car-sized tire hanging on a wooden dowel against the wall.  “What about that tire?”, I asked.  The attendant said he hadn’t noticed that tire forever, but he was able to eventually scale around to the loft area and get the tire down.  Sure enough, though the tire was used and old, it was a car tire that was exactly the size of tire our car needed.  A few minutes later, we were happily and gratefully back on the road towards Tempe.  

LESSON LEARNED:  When the answer is no, keep a prayer in your heart and press forward in faith.  

FEEDBACK:  WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH A PRAYER BEING ANSWERED?