I’m not a person who often feels I have experienced God in a tangible way, or thinks God has spoken to me. My faith in God is built mostly on objective facts available to us all.
But more than 40 years ago, I believe God intervened to save me from serious harm. Let me tell you about it.
A mundane trip?
Four decades ago now, as part of my job, I drove regularly on a small winding country road between Sydney and Muswellbrook, a town 4 hours north in New South Wales, Australia.
(For anyone familiar with the Sydney area, the road was along Wollombi Brook. It was the roughest of the 3 possible routes, but in those days it was the shortest, and I enjoyed the trip through the sparsely settled countryside.)
For about 20 km or so, the road was unsealed gravel, twisting as it went alongside the river bank, and with limited view of the road ahead. At times corrugations had developed in the road, temporarily breaking the grip of the tyres on the road.
On one trip I was returning to Sydney about 4:00 pm, and was on the unsealed section of road, approaching a bend to the right. I think it was the bend in the picture at the top, but the road has been sealed and probably re-aligned since then, and trees would have grown and been cut down, so I cannot be sure.
I was probably pretty relaxed and only half-focused, when a completely alien thought went through my mind: “If I keep driving and a truck comes round that bend on the wrong side of the road, I’ll be dead.”
My wife and I pray together each day for safety and guidance, so I didn’t really think too much, I just braked.
And yes, of course, you guessed it, a truck did come around the bend, bumping sideways on the corrugations so it was over on my side of the road.
The truck fishtailed over the narrow road as the driver tried to control his skid, and he managed to straighten up by the time he got to me, about 100m back from the bend. But of course, had I not slowed, I’d have been about 50m closer, and definitely in the wrong spot.
I cannot say how bad the accident would have been, but being hit by a large truck is not recommended!
Was it God?
Of course I cannot say for certain that the unexpected thought came from God. But what I can say is that I don’t ever recall having such a clear thought about a possible accident any other time in my 60 years of driving, and I never had another incident like that on that road.
There are dozens of similar bends on that gravel section of road, and I travelled that road perhaps 30 times on 15 return trips. So this incident was maybe one in a thousand. So it seems to me that the odds are against such a warning thought occurring by chance. Either this was a psychic phenomenon, or someone outside me warned me.
I believe it was God, and I remain thankful. We still pray together for God’s care of us every morning.
Photos taken from Google Streetview.
If god was watching out for you why not just inspire the other driver to stay in his lane and avoid the problem altogether?
When approaching a blind curve you never drive defensively? It does not, in general, occur to you that you cannot see around the curve and therefore there is a chance somebody will cross over the line an appear suddenly? You have been driving for 60 years without any such awareness in such situations?
Of course, one should drive at the speed one can see, that is, adjust speed according to visual conditions. We don’t need god to understand that.
Which is more likely, that an invisible, otherwise undetected, super powerful being that can read your mind and every mind of every person simultaneously was monitoring your driving and all driving everywhere and saw a dangerous situation for you and thus somehow manipulated your brain cells to think certain thoughts and have your muscles perform certain contractions…or you visually recognized a common situation of risk due to low visibility while driving so you slowed down?
Why invent some fantastical invisible super being to account for your simple common sense?
Hi, thanks for reading even when you don’t agree, and for commenting.
How probable do you think it was that the driver had prayed that morning asking for God’s protection and guidance in his life?
Driving is always a matter of risk management. I could make myself safer by driving at 10 kph, but Australia is a big country and it really wouldn’t be practical. But anyway, it wasn’t speed that made this incident unsafe, but the timing of the two vehicles approaching the bend.
I didn’t invent God to account for this event. I’m sure you are aware that God has been around far longer than you or I. And it wasn’t “common sense”. That “common sense” would have led to me slowing down unnecessarily on every bend on every trip, which wouldn’t make sense at all.
I suggest once I have a belief in God, for other reasons, attributing this event to God is quite reasonable. Perhaps it is you who is offering misunderstandings of the situation because you disagree with my belief?