Wake Up Call
Awakened by a replay of something that had happened more than a decade ago, I leaned over to find 2:46am staring back at me from the alarm clock. The next thought was a statement so clear it was almost audible, “I have always protected you.” This straight-forward statement seemed oddly out of place but was the answer to a heart’s cry mulled over two weeks before. While rehearsing a long list of relational fractures—I kept coming up with the same conclusion. “God could fix this.” It would be admirable to say that I sent my complaints heavenward. Instead, I just kept stirring and stewing the what-ifs. Whether our concerns take the form of prayers, complaints or feeble mumblings, the Lord knows, cares and desires to meet us at our point of need.
Two forty six in the morning, wide awake reliving a forced review of events that could have ended in tragedy. Ten years ago, a friend’s child ran into my utility room and grabbed my sleeping shepherd. We would learn later that the child had just come from her brother’s house and been playing with his Rottweiler. Startled from a dead sleep, my dog interpreted the child’s animal scented hug as an attack and snapped before he even opened his eyes. The results was two small puncture wounds that we would be told by the Emergency Room physician were 1/8 of an inch from the child’s carotid artery. While the child adamantly protested the treatment and the mother argued against my dog’s impound, I blasted gratitude to the throne.
It went without saying that this incident could have ended so differently. While, tracing the minuscule fissures in the ceiling of my aged abode and rewinding the words, “I have always protected you”; other forgotten scenes came forward. A near crash at a busy intersection on my 18th birthday, missed by an intoxicated driver whose demolished vehicle would later be on the evening’s new. A split second and a fourth of a mile separated our destinies. How had I so glibly taken this noteworthy protection for granted?
Next, the camera in my mind’s eye trained on the quivering hand of a young gangster as he screamed, pointed the handgun in my direction and began firing dead on from less than twenty feet away. The anguish in his eyes, a resolute combination of anger and fear, is bolted onto my brain. The “startled” reaction to unexpected noises faded within a few weeks but, the cold sad impression left by that young man’s eyes remains. Untouched, not even a bullet hole in my car…
Yes, Lord…You have always protected me. You are amazing and completely trustworthy. You are my fortress. Your very name is my strong tower (Proverbs 18:10), even during times when—I do not recognize your faithful watch care; you are there. Not one thing that happens here on this confused planet takes you off guard. Thank you for the times of loving protection I am able to recall and for the dozens that slip by without fanfare. You are far more than I deserve. It is a privilege to reside under the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91). You are my God, my shield, my protector and the author of amazing wake-up calls.