I think it is time to write again. This blog has been silent for two weeks as I took time out to meditate on the implications of narrowly avoiding a possibly fatal car accident Sunday before last. It has been a time of grace and gratitude. When you have stared the possibility of death in the face and been spared, every second begins to seem like a gift, every moment an opportunity, a gift and an opportunity that must be employed to the greatest benefit of the giver.
The week started out quietly enough, but at the beginning of the week I sent word out to our intercessors and requested, for no immediately apparent reason that they pray for me that week. As to who actually did, we will be silent. Come Sunday, I drove off to church as usual. On the highway, as I neared the next city, driving at 110 kilometres an hour I suddenly saw a car turn towards me from my left, heading straight for me.
In one split second, without stopping to think and with reflexes I did not know I had, I swerved sharply out of the way of the oncoming vehicle seconds before they would have run into me. It took me off the highway, I was compelled to exit and followed the offending vehicle which simply turned round and headed back for the highway. Apparently it was not their exit, so what were they thinking? I guess I will never know. And neither will they quite possibly.
One thing I do know, God was in there with me. He not only decided it was not time for me to come home, He also prevented me being badly injured in any way. Nor can I take credit for the surreal calm and self possession with which I reacted instantly; were angels moving my steering wheel? I have to think yes. I turned round, headed back for the highway and drove soberly to church thinking of what had just transpired.
Would death have been such a terrible proposition? For the Christian, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So would I have minded finding myself in the presence of God, I think not. Yet a life would have been cut short without fulfilling divine purpose, that is not the plan of God. So the past two weeks of grace and gratitude have been times of consecrating to fulfill divine purpose, to make sure that before I depart, I do the thing for which God sent me to earth.
There is a Scripture that talks about us prizing the things that are of true value. There are those things that we leave behind, others that we take with us to heaven; those are the things that are of true value. And those are the things to which I intend to devote my life, my energies, my time and my brains. They are the only things that deserve me.
On Sunday I told the church something I had heard myself say in prayer in the course of the week, and that is that ‘you were made in the image of God, your life is too valuable to be spent on things that are not of eternal value. ‘ And if I may be permitted to quote the beloved apostle Paul, who as usual put it brilliantly when he said ‘for me to live is Christ, to die is gain’ and if I am to keep on living, it will mean fruitful service ( I paraphrase). I do not fear death, it is the entrance into eternity and the presence of the Master I adore, nor do I fear life, it is the one opportunity given me to magnify my Master and work for the extension of His kingdom.
Shalom!