Pastor Michael Walker

Minister for the Seventh-day Adventist Church

Burnt Lane, Gorleston

 

  

It was some 40 years ago. We had only entered the ministry a few months before. Our daughter was about 6 months old. We were driving through Haddiscoe to Great Yarmouth for a preaching appointment when it happened. The road was wet after a dry spell. Our car went out of control. I was an inexperienced driver. In an attempt to avoid a crash, I exasperated the skid. The car spun around, hit a brick gatepost, shot into the air and landed on its roof! We sat upside-down, dazed with shock for a few moments; then the baby started to cry. “The baby, the baby!” called my wife. We turned our heads expecting the worst but then we knew.  

 

There is no doubt in our minds even to this day. God protected us all! We had committed our lives into His care that morning as we always do. He had saved us from injury and fatality. So what happened? Our baby daughter was still in her carrycot, nicely tucked in with her blanket exactly as my wife had placed her. The carrycot was resting right side up on the car roof, and yet the rear seat on which the cot had been was now flung across the road! No one has been able to explain how it was possible. The only explanation we have, and of this we are convinced, God must have sent His angel to hold the cot in mid-air while the car turned over and the seat was flung out, and then placed it safely down again on the roof. We were all unscathed. The whole drama was summed up in the shocked response of the garage man when he arrived at the scene and saw the mangled car: “That was a miracle!” 

 

Indeed it was. Miracles still happen. There are countless experiences people tell of close shaves with tragedy, but the fact is, whether we realize it or not, every day is a miracle. Life itself is a wonderful miracle. There are too many things we take for granted. If only we took more time to pause in the dash of life and consider what God has wrought today. From another perspective we may also give God a chance in our lives; after all, He does care enough to provide the necessities of life: air, sunlight, rain, food, and even protection from hidden danger no doubt more times than we may be aware. I vote that we give God a voice to be heard above the hub-and-bub of life. Though rejected and scoffed at by many, He’s saying, “I’m still here. I still love you and care for you. Give Me a chance!” You could be amazed at where you find Him. If only we would listen, and even turn and look, and then we shall know. 

 

 

 

 

Photograph attached: Michael with his wife Pearl at the Garden Tomb, Jerusalem, during a visit last March.