Today I am an ardent worker for the Lord, but when I think back to the many times when my life could have been cut short, it made me realise that I was supposed to be here. Since way back then, God has always been talking to me, but I was too young to understand. He always tries to prevent me from going into danger.
I will share three instances when God miraculously saved my life.
The first time God showed up big time in my life, I was close to 10 years old. My father took my brothers and myself to the Salt River Bath, and we were all having fun. Now I am no swimmer, but there I was bragging and asking, “Who can dive like me?!” I didn’t know the first thing about diving, but that didn’t stop me from plunging into the water to show how good I was.
I could not get up! I could feel myself struggling to get back on my feet, but nothing seemed to be working for me.
After a while, it seemed that I just ‘fell asleep’ not knowing that I had lost consciousness and was drowning.
I came back to reality to see myself sputtering water and my father and big brother holding me. My father was so frightened that he ended the festivities for everyone as he said, “I was dying right under his nose.”
The second miracle came when I was 13, I remembered getting up one morning and telling my mother I did not want to go to school. This was strange, considering I loved school and would insist on going even if my parents did not have any lunch money for me.
That morning, my mother took up the belt to get me to come out of the house and go to school. I did not reach as a transit van hit me down while I was crossing the street.
The memory is still fresh. I ran from the coaster bus I was in and tried to make it across the road, and all I can recall is standing in the middle of the road and seeing the van bearing down on me. I lost consciousness and was told that everyone thought I was dead.
I was also told that no one had ever gotten hit down at that particular spot and live… so they automatically wrote me off.
After I regained consciousness, I got several stitches in m
y head and was ‘patched up’ and sent home. My mother was beyond herself with grief as she remembered that I didn’t want to go to school.
The third miracle came when my father came off the road after purchasing items for my mother to prepare a meal for the family. He was late, so he threw everything down on the table and hurried for work.
Among the items on the table was a packet of powdered insecticide, which, in his rush, he had forgotten to separate from the powdered season he bought for the food. My mother asked me to cook, and I took up all the powdered season from the table to season the chicken back. My mother looked at the insecticide and was saying somehow it didn’t look like regular seasoning. I burst the bag and put a sample to the tip of my tongue and told her it was ok.
So I seasoned the meat and was frying it on a stove made from tire rim with metal standing legs grilled to it.
The strangest thing happened, the oil from the fried chicken back had settled at the bottom of the pot, and there was no wind blowing as I was in an enclosed kitchen. I saw the stove tilted as if someone had deliberately pushed it, and the pot fell off. All the oil drained out of the pot, and the meat fell out too, and I had to wash the contents and put it back on the stove with fresh oil.
I was so mad, wondering what kind of ‘crosses’ was happening.
We all had our dinner and went to bed, forgetting about the mishap.
My father came from work after midnight, and we were all asleep. He had his dinner and went to bed too.
In the morning, he told my mother that he had forgotten to put away the insecticide and if she had done it for him.
“I knew there was something wrong with that packet, and I told Joan that it didn’t look like season,” she exclaimed before relating what had transpired.
My father, who was not a Christian, exclaimed, “Jesus! Thank you for allowing your angel to kick over the stove so the bad oil could leak out!”
He was so shaken, as he said. Had the accident not happened, he would have come from work, seen us asleep as he did, had his meal, and died along with the rest of us.
That was an eye opener for me, as I realised what I thought was crosses, was actually the hand of God ensuring that I was around to do his work.
Since then there have been many “but God” instances in my life, but those will be for another day. My life is totally sold out to doing God’s will, as I now realise He has been saving me for a purpose, and I am happy to be walking in it.