A Near-Miss

Have you ever had a near-miss? 

Me too. I pulled into an intersection in the left lane when a car from the far right lane decided to take a left and quickly entered my lane. 

Of course, I reacted as quickly as possible, but the distance between us seemed so tight. My mind raced as if the accident had already happened. Police, tow trucks, and dealing with insurance companies. Yuk!!

Only by the grace of God, we never touched. A near-miss. An intervention.

To this day, I'm not sure why we didn't exchange car paints. I bet for thirty minutes, I repeated, "Thank you, Jesus. Not sure why You did that, but thank you."

Then this question flashed through my mind.

Wonder how many other times He has intervened on my behalf and I never even knew?

God often gets a bum deal from us humans. 

• Bad stuff happens to us and we blame Him. 
• Or misfortune comes our way and we question Him, "Why didn't you prevent this mess?" 
• Or even worse, we make foolish decisions—outside of His will for us—and we whine to Him because we're suffering the consequences.

Oh, we can be grateful when we experience a blessing and give thanks, like with my near-miss or when a parking space opens up close to the store or we see His craftsmanship in nature.

In Philippians 2, I discovered Paul talking about a different kind of near-miss.

Verse 25, "But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed he was ill and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow."

Paul realized God's mercy for his friend and for himself, "to spare me sorrow upon sorrow." I believe Paul saw with spiritual eyes that God intervened in both lives and he experienced extreme gratitude.

That's what I want. 


Spiritual eyes which are grateful for the blessings I see, but also thankful for the times my Heavenly Father intervenes, holds up His mighty hand and declares, "No!" to avert calamity and heartbreak.

Thank you, King of Kings, for all the near-misses you have provided along my journey. 

And please don't ever stop intervening in my life.

What do you think? Do you believe God intervenes and protects us? Have you had any near-misses you want to share? I'd love to hear your story.

Living the Garden Life, Tammy Van Gils plants words and sprouts insightful stories blooming with hope. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers. She's honored to be a guest blogger and a contributor to The Wonders of Nature Devotion Book, (Dec 2016) and So God Made a Dog: 90 Devotions for Dog People (July 2017) Worthy Inspired.