There are those moments in life that just stand out. Moments when something happens and you know immediately that you just experienced the hand of God. It is undeniable. You are living your normal life and in a flash, you realize that the Creator of the universe just acted on your behalf.
There have been many of these moments throughout my life. I’m sure there are many more moments that I’m not aware of.
There was the time when I was around 9 years old. I was rock climbing with some friends. There was a wall of rocks with a sheer face about 40 ft high. I started to climb. I was making good progress until I reached my hand up to grasp the top edge to pull myself up. But instead of feeling firm, flat stone, I felt loose sand and gravel. My grip did not hold and I found my body falling back with nothing to stop me hurtling down to the rocks below. As I started to fall back, I felt a hand on my back. This invisible hand pushed me back up so I could grab the top of the rock and pull myself to the top.
One Autumn, my dad, my brother and I were in northern Minnesota hunting partridge. We were walking along an old logging trail and came upon a small river. We decided to stop and rest. After a few minutes, my dad got up and wanted to continue the hunt. I was down by the waters edge and my brother was on top of the bank. As I was preparing to go, I heard a loud blast. Immediately, I felt hundreds of projectiles painfully peppering my face. I reached up with my hands to feel if I still had a face. Thankfully, I did. After I had some time to regain my composure, I realized what had just happened. My brother had mistakenly picked up his shotgun by the trigger. The gun was pointed straight at my head. It went off. Fortunately, between the gun barrel and my face was a small pile of dirt. When the gun fired, the shotgun pellets hit the pile of dirt sending the dirt up into my face. Only one pellet hit me and it just grazed my neck.
A number of years ago, I was running across a field and I came upon a 4 ft high chain link fence. It looked like an easy jump so I launched. I almost made it but the toe of my shoe caught the very top of the fence and sent me head first straight into the ground. The top of my head hit the dirt first followed by the full weight of my body. My head bent violently to the side and I heard a loud crack in my neck. When everything came to a stop, I laid there for a minute trying to evaluate my condition. I was concerned I had broken my neck. I started to slowly move, checking if anything hurt. Nothing did. I got up completely, moving my neck back and forth. Everything worked as normal.
One day, I was standing at a stoplight in downtown Orlando, waiting for it to turn so I could go. The little man came on telling me it was time to cross. But before I started, I heard a voice in my head say “WAIT.” Two seconds later, a small sports car flew past me with no intention of even slowing down. It missed my legs by about six inches. If I had stepped into the street, it would have hit me in the knees at 40 mph. Instead, I made it safely across.
I have talked a number of times about how much I love riding my 3 wheel bike. Just the other day I decided to go for a sunset ride. I went to my garage like I always do. I got on the bike like I always do. I started to back out of the garage, but unlike aways, as I backed down the driveway, I lost control. The bike turned sharply and flipped over. Instead of me riding the bike, the bike was now riding me. As I laid there with my face planted in the grass, a number of thoughts went through my mind. Am I hurt? Even though I felt minor pain in a few parts of my body, it seemed like I was ok. Did any of my neighbors witness this spectacle? No one was coming and I didn’t hear any sirens. Did I damage my bike? I couldn’t answer that question until I knew the answer to the next question. Could I get this bike of off me and could I get up by myself. I started to unravel myself from my bike and found I could stand. I took a body inventory and except for some small bruises, everything still worked. Then I was able to flip my bike over, no damage. I realized that instead of flipping and landing on the hard concrete of my driveway, my bike was directed to flip onto the thick soft St. Augustine grass of my front yard.
As I pushed my bike back into the garage, I found myself again feeling the awe of knowing that the Creator of the universe reaches down His hand in a moment and protects my steps and even directs my bike flips.
“He makes every bike flip a dance!”
Slow Hand Journey 