A Close Call, A Great God.
I came close to having a bad accident recently. I firmly believe the hand of God was on me, and later He lifted me above myself into his own presence.
Ok, here’s what happened. I made a trip to Cincinnati a few weeks ago, about 3 hours from Mansfield. I wanted to spend some time with my sister Marian who is aging, and cannot get around like she used to. I picked her up, we went to lunch, then ran some errands. I dropped her off, then headed back to Mansfield.
A 3 hour trip will require you to stop and stretch. I got a chance to do this when I noticed my gas was getting low. I took the Wilmington exit and headed east toward a gas station. There was another station right across from the one I took. I pulled in, filled up, got a snack, and headed on out.
To get back to I71 I had to exit the gas station, cross over one lane, then head west on the two lane highway. I noticed there was a line of about 6 or 7 cars in the lane close to me, waiting at a light off to my right. One driver was approaching the line, but, out of courtesy, gestured me to move out in front of her so I could go on. I had to pass through the line between the cars in order to turn left. I realized I could not see to my right that well, but I went anyway. I turned left…and immediately saw a white pick up truck right next to me. He had to swerve off the road to keep from hitting me. He looked at me kind of funny, but did not express any anger. I gestured an apology and went on my way. I thought later, what if that would have been a semi who could neither swerve nor stop on time.
I was mildly shaken as I turned on to I71, while the pick up truck went on toward his destination. I prayed, thanking God for his hand on me, and proceeded more carefully…and a bit slower.
Now, the other part of this story has to do with my musical up bringing. As a kid, my family loved Southern Gospel Music; the quartets, the great gospel singers, the whole world. Since I have become a professional musician myself, my musical preferences have changed dramatically. I am no longer the big fan I once was, but I do acknowledge the important place Southern Gospel holds in certain cultures. There is a relatively new group I found some time back called the Triumphant Quartet, out of Nashville. They have an album of church hymns. The song I decided to listen to was “How Great Thou Art.”
The arrangement the group uses is fairly simple but gets the point across. The lead singer (Tenor 2 in my world, carrying the melody most of the time) has a solo on two verses, then the group comes in on the chorus, and the whole thing leads to a big Southern Gospel ending. At the end, the tenor (Tenor 1) moves up to a high note, and the bass does a long slide down to the same note, but three octaves lower. The middle voices provide the needed notes to fill out the harmony…all in grand Southern Gospel style. It really is quite good.
However, I got to the place where the style of what they were singing was not the primary thing. My eyes filled with tears as I realized that what they were singing about was far more important than how they sang it.
What they were saying was, we serve a truly great God, one who watches over us.
A bit later I arrived in Columbus. Traffic was fairly heavy, but I was filled with gratitude at how our great God just helped me out of a bad place, possibly rescued me from harm. I was in Columbus, but my heart was elsewhere.
I wanted to quote a scripture verse here on the greatness of God, but there are hundreds, maybe even thousands. I simply could not decide which one would be best, so I would encourage you to do this some time. Sit quietly and ponder the greatness of God in your own life, those moments, how he has blessed you, protected you, kept you going, rescued you. Your heart will be filled with gratitude at His faithfulness. Open your Bible to some verses that speak of the greatness of God, one of the Psalms, maybe. Sit quietly in His presence and allow His Spirit to minister to you. You don’t have to say anything, just be still before Him.
We can go on and on about His creation, His plan of salvation carried out in Jesus Christ. We can talk all we want about His place in history, and how it will eventually come to the fulfillment of the Kingdom, and we should do this. However, sometimes we need to stop and be silent…ponder, and just be in His presence. It has a tendency to change you.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee,
How great Thou Art!!
Thanks be to God.
