The Protective Hand of God

I was going through my old journals and found this entry from July, 2007. As I relived the event in my mind while I read, the smile just stretched across my face - from ear to ear. Enjoy!

July 12, 2007

Let me just tell you how awesome God is!

You know how we get up and go about our business everyday. We pray for guidance and protection as a habit everyday. But we don’t really have any concept of exactly what God shields us from on a daily basis. Today, He reminded me of just how much He loves me and how much junk He protects me from.

Driving to work southbound on I-75. Suddenly I felt something strike the back of my car and instinctively put my foot on the brake. A violent vibration took over and I could not control the wheel. I was holding on for dear life, with my foot on the brake, saying over and over … “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”. The car veered to the left and into the grassy median, I wrestled the steering wheel back toward the road. Once back on the pavement, the car veered toward the other side of the road. I felt the G-force pushing the car to my left, and felt that the car would flip at any second. All the while, I’m crying out, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”. Suddenly the car came to a stop cross-ways in the middle of three lanes of the interstate. I drew in a breath and said “Thank you Jesus.” I looked to my right and saw two pickup trucks sitting inches from my vehicle. The female driver of one of the trucks was staring at me with eyes wide and mouth gaping. I started my vehicle again, and it thumped to the right shoulder of the road.

I got out of the car with my hands in the air, praising God, thanking Jesus. One of the occupants in one of the pickup trucks got out and asked me if I was ok, to which I responded, “Yes! Yes! I am just fine!” He said “that was amazing! The way you controlled that vehicle … that was amazing!” I smiled and said “No sir, I had nothing to do with that. That was all God! God controlled it; He had hold of the wheel.” After assuring him that I was calling my husband to help me with the tire and that I was indeed ok, he left.

I briefly assessed the damage to the rear of the vehicle, got back in the car and called Craig to come help me change the tire. Then I sat to wait. I picked up my Bible and turned to the Psalms. My eyes fell on Psalm 139:5-6. “You hem me in – behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; too lofty for me to attain.” Never before have I so powerfully felt the presence of the Lord. As I sat and went over every detail of the past few minutes in my mind, I wondered, “what was I doing at the moment that the tire began to separate? I wasn’t drinking my coffee, because both hands were on the wheel.” Then I remembered. I was praying. And how easy it was to just start calling out His Name when I realized I was in trouble, because I was already talking to Him.

My husband was unable to change the tire, so we called a wrecker service (I had managed to lose the thingymabob that drops the spare tire from under the vehicle). The wrecker driver went to retrieve my spare tire and told me it was flat (can you see a pattern here?). So we had to have the car towed back to Lake City to get two new tires. As the wrecker driver pulled the car up on his flatbed, he called me over to look at the left front tire … there was metal showing on the inside of the tire! Another reason to praise God! He allowed the rear tire to blow rather than the front tire. We all know what happens when a front tire blows on an SUV at a high rate of speed!

Talking to Craig on the way back to the shop, I told him that I ask God every morning during my drive/prayer time to keep my vehicle safe and functioning properly, to keep the tires intact and firmly on the pavement, and to get me to work on time and safely. But this morning, I hadn’t gotten to that part of my prayer yet. It kinda tickled me as I imagined God chuckling … “Well, you didn’t ask that of me this morning…”