Rays of Light

Some time ago, I promised to share more of my own personal encounters with the miraculous. This one is truly shocking –literally.

Four-thirty in the morning was just too early for me to wake up and get dressed, except for shoes, then drive my step-father to the commuter lot, but I had no choice. I needed the car that day and that was the only way I could get it. Along the way, flashes of lightning tore through the early morning sky to announce a coming storm. Although my plan had been to drive back home, dive into bed and pick up my dream where I left off, my step-father decreed something more important.

“You need to go home and wake up your mom and your brother, and ask them to help you take down the antennae before the storm hits.”

I only half obeyed. Suffice it to say that I was sure I could do the task myself. Besides, waking anyone else up that early was never a good idea, trust me. By the time I stood ready to dismount the antennae, it had already started to drizzle; there was about one-quarter inch of water standing on the deck. The cool water felt good on my bare feet, but I knew that going back to sleep was out of the question because the slow, but steady raindrops had already slapped me more awake than I wanted to be. That’s okay, I thought, because I love a nice storm and I’ll be awake to enjoy this one. Little did I know that I was about to experience a miracle; one that I would never forget.

The antennae was taller than I was, and just a bit heavy, but I could have capably managed a quick dismount had it not been for the sudden gust of wind that thrust the top-heavy apparatus right onto the power lines. My body went instantly rigid as the electricity flowed right through my body. My mind screamed, “Get it off!” but my body could not physically respond. Aside from the violent muscular jerking, I was paralyzed, unable to let go.

Have you have ever seen one of those cartoons where something disastrous happens in super slow motion? That’s what the whole trauma seemed like. The ball of energy, which started at the power line, worked its ways through both me and the antennae and entered the coax cable. Connected to the other end of the cable was my step-father’s prized Ham radio. The energy ball wrapped itself around the cable and headed straight for it.

The radio was the size of a large microwave and I just knew that it would blow-up. It did!

Everything probably happened rather quickly, but it sure didn’t seem like it. To this day, I remember having enough time to mentally cry out, “He’s gonna kill me! He’s gonna to kill me!”

I didn’t think I had been able to make any audible sound, but at some point I screamed loud enough to wake my family and bring the neighbors running. It was a bit late; the radio had already blown and I was glued to the deck, still unable to move. Oddly, though, once my mother opened the sliding glass door and stepped outside, the antennae came off the power line. I am still quite certain that it lifted itself, without any effort from me.

Once inside the house, I did receive a scolding. “You could’ve been killed!” she shrieked. The whole incident was so surreal that I hadn’t yet thought about the fact that I should have been electrocuted (I later learned that my disaster knocked out the town’s electricity for four city blocks). My only fear up to that point was the repercussions that I would face from an angry, temperamental step-father who treasured his radio equipment.

I was so overcome with worry that I stayed home that day and fretted. The clock, like the energy ball, seemed to creep towards its intended target in slow motion; it was one of the longest days of my life.

At the appointed time, I retrieved my step-father from the lot and explained what had happened. “You were right, I should have listened to you and woke up mom and brother, but…” My body went rigid again as I tensed, waiting for the verbal slaughter.

Instead, to my utter surprise, he cried. That was the second shock I received that day. When I was growing up, breaking a dish was practically a capital offense, but for this grave blunder no punishment was given. He only had compassion and understanding.

Dear reader, I want you to understand that at the time all of this happened, I did not know God. Yet, He still chose to look upon me with compassion and spared my life. It would be many years more before I would accept Jesus Christ as my Savior and thank Him for that merciful act, but He always looked-out for me anyway.

I hope you are blessed by this true testimony of God’s miraculous intervention. If you are in relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, I praise God. But if you are not, I want to you to know that He loves you no matter what, and He is looking out for you whether you realize it or not.

Perhaps it doesn’t seem that way to you. If not, it might be because you are trying to do everything in your own strength; thinking you can get through without help. But that doesn’t generally work. Without God, the winds of adversity will surely blow your way and wreak havoc until something finally blows-up.

My prayer for you today, dear reader, is for you to know that God is with you through every storm. He is merciful and compassionate, and He is a very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1) because He cares for you very much.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life…. Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? (Matthew 6:25,26).