“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all ways.” ~Psalm 91:11
Two incidents happened last month that reminded me of God’s immeasurable and perfect protection. One Tuesday evening my family had an unusually long day after my older daughter’s swim meet and my younger daughter’s school spelling bee. My girls and I arrived home about 8:30 and my husband arrived about an hour later. By the time he arrived, I was in the bed, but still awake. Thank God I was. If I had been asleep, he would have used another bathroom and not found the black snake lying on our master bathroom floor! I am positive it was not there when I got home. Or, when I went into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth—standing right in front of the vent he came out. For that I am grateful. Just the day before my husband was out of town, and my younger daughter was having a sleepover. I am a city girl. I am terrified of snakes. I can’t even look at pictures of them. I am grateful I was not home alone, and that my husband, who at one time wanted to be a herpetologist in his youth, wasn’t afraid, too.
While the black snake was not a threat to my life, a near-accident the week before could have been. I was driving on the interstate on a rainy day. A car to my left attempted to move to another lane but suddenly steered back to his lane. When the driver did that, he lost control of the car making a 360-degree turn into my lane. I was sure I was going to hit him. I also knew there was a vehicle behind me. Instead, he kept spinning until he ended up on the shoulder facing traffic. He was safe as was everyone else that day. It took me a full hour to calm my spirit. But, that weekend, I reflected on God’s protection.
These two incidents reminded me that our unseen God offers the greatest protection against unseen dangers. These are two things that I saw and experienced. But, think of all the things we don’t even know from which God is protecting us. We discovered that there was a space where the HV/AC unit connects to the house that was unsealed and the vent in the bathroom was too, creating just enough space for a baby snake to get through. The technician also found a much longer snakeskin in the crawl space. Though the bathroom vent was the only opening to the house that was compromised, we have unknowingly been living with at least two visitors under our house! When you look back in hindsight, I am sure you can think of some unseen dangers: the near-accident, someone out to do you harm, the prompting to leave a place at a particular time, or the fact that you were late which also kept you from danger.
Because we live in a fallen world, bad, unfair and tragic things do happen. I am sure we have all wrestled with God on things He did allow to happen. It’s okay to wrestle. Our God is big enough to handle our questions and even our anger. Unlike our earthly relationships, He will not stop talking to us, providing for us, or protecting us as we work through our issues with Him.
A few years ago, I started thanking God for ordinary days when nothing out of the ordinary happened. Those ordinary days should remind us that God’s immeasurable protection is perfect.
