Frank & Eleanor Vander Meulen Missionary & Church Relations, Canada It was Saturday morning and sunny – perfect conditions for doing yard work. Jared and Scott and I had already accomplished a fair bit when we went up the small hill behind the house, where we have a nice grassy area with a fire pit. But the big old pine trees there are getting in the way, their lower limbs reaching farther and farther. Some of those limbs have already had smaller branches snapped off them. We needed to remove some limbs from the trees, rake up needles, and cut the grass.
Jared and Scott were raking. I was mowing, working away from the fire pit to the perimeter of the area. Approaching one of the pine trees I changed the direction of the mower and stepped toward the tree to extend the mower to the trunk.
The branch I was mowing under had a six-inch stump sticking out – the remnant of an old dead branch that had snapped off. I didn’t see it. As I stepped forward I walked with full force into that stump – hitting me square between the eyes and raking up my forehead.
The force of the impact sent me sprawling backwards to the ground. Jared was totally confused. He had been raking nearby; a moment later he turns and sees me on the grass, with my hand on my bleeding forehead. How does that happen when cutting the grass?
The Obvious Reaction: So for several days now I’ve had countless people stop and ask, “What happened?” The story is getting rather old. And there’s no glory in it. At least not for me.
But as for God – praise the Lord for His grace! That six-inch stump nailed me hard, right between the eyes. An extra centimetre to either side and that stick would have gone deep into an eye socket. I cringe at the thought of what the result would have been. As it is all I’ve had is a prominent and goofy scab, and a story of my own carelessness.
Over four decades the Lord has – many times – graciously protected me from the consequences of my own carelessness. That my life should amount to anything that contributes positively to life on this planet is a testimony to God’s wonderful kindness to me. When ‘bad’ things happens, we can say, “If only I had cut the branches before mowing. If only I had I had left earlier, or later. If only I had done this, or done that.” So often the things that happen to us – or don’t happen to us – hinge on a matter of a second or centimetre.
But when things don’t happen to us…do we even recognize that God might have spared us from something?
So, I’m very, very thankful to have been nailed between the eyes with a branch stump. A testimony to God’s grace.
