Having lived something of a charmed life, I've never broken a bone in my fifty plus years. However, I do have a number of visible scars that remind me of work and sporting mishaps, or medical procedures.
On Sunday, a few seconds after I blew out the Christ candle sitting in the middle-front of the communion table, the large spot light suspended straight overhead blew up, scattering many pieces of glass, with the heavy transformer falling from a great height and making a noticeable dent in the floor.
I am enormously glad that neither I or anyone else was physically harmed by this event. Timing is everything, as the saying goes. Many people jumped in to clean up the mess pronto, thanks to those who did.
So just as the body bears scars of past experiences, so now the church floor has a dent to remind us of the great exploding light incident of April 2022, which by God's grace didn't put the minister in hospital. When I walk past the dent it will always be in remembrance of God's protection.
I'm happy to give thanks to God for my close call, a kind of deliverance I suppose. But how do I reconcile that with many things for myself or others where the timing has not been so great? Sometimes people do sustain serious injuries or become subject to serious medical events. Sometimes we sell a house on a flat market, lose our luggage or have some other disaster. We get expelled from school, seriously injured, robbed or even die. And God is still God in the midst of these sub-optimal circumstances. Yet we live in a broken and sometimes chaotic world.
Nonetheless, I believe in God's intervention, and I'm thankful for God's timing and a near miss on Sunday. I'll take it! What a blessing to not be riding an ambulance that day. Or worse.
Psalm 91, that great faith building psalm of God's protection, says; "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." (Ps 91: 11-12)
Whatever happens, bad or good, let us remember that God has got us in the palm of God's hand and cares for us. AMEN