THE RED KNIFE

 Hello. It has been a long time since I have posted but I felt that I finally have something to say!

               The picnic area.

               

I never cease to be amazed at how things can seem bad, but then we see it from another angle, often hindsight, and it makes complete sense.  It is as though things had to go the way they went, even though we were distraught about it at the time.  I will share a couple of examples.

Yesterday Christina and I went for a bike ride, something we like to do when we can.  This particular day we had the whole day.  We rode from East Granby through the notch in the top of Connecticut and into Massachusetts. We made it all the way to the northern end in Westfield, MA, at the Stop and Shop. I went in and got a grinder, bag of chips, and Coke. We headed back down the trail looking for a shady spot to eat our lunch of fruit and my newly acquired lunch.

We settled on a spot where we could sit on a giant block of granite, something left over from the days before the railroad, when an old canal ran from New Haven to Westfield. We were within sight of the factory where Columbia bicycles used to be made years ago. We thoroughly enjoyed our lunch and ride back to the car.

We drove the 20 miles to Costco, as we often do, to pick up some things. It has nothing to do with the story, but on our way to Costco we saw a bear!! Anyway, after we had shopped and we were putting our purchases in the car I took a peach out of the box for us to share in the parking lot. I reached into my left pocket for my knife so I could cut it…it wasn’t there! Almost immediately I knew it must have fallen off the block as we were having lunch. It was a nice Case knife and had a red handle.

The knife

It took us 20 minutes to drive back to a parking area near our picnic spot. As we drove I figured that the chances for finding it weren’t that great. And like they say, finder’s keepers!! But I unloaded my bike and rode the 1.2 miles down the path to the spot. And there it was!

What if I hadn’t gotten the peach out of the box in the parking lot? What if Christina hadn’t encouraged me to go look, keeping a cheerful attitude the whole time? What if I had given up? BUT I did get the peach that needed to be cut, Christina did gently push me along as we went, and I didn’t give up.

Another infinitely more serious event took place earlier in July. Maybe once a year we have the Saturday night group from church over for a cookout. On July 14 we gathered about 5 pm for hot dogs and hamburgers. As we finished eating there was a commotion on the road in front of our house. As we investigated, we discovered that a young man had been unable to stop his motorcycle at the intersection from going into the path of a pickup and was struck.

Several of our people were nearby praying. One of our men and myself assisted a lady who was administering CPR. We were praying with him and for him as he died. I prayed with the man’s grandfather who had walked to the scene, and I prayed for the young lady who was driving the pickup that hit him. It left our whole group shaken as well.

But thinking back on that evening, what were the chances we would be at our house on a Saturday night? Who would have prayed for him if we hadn't been there? We were supposed to be there so we could be praying for that man. Only God knows what happened in those final moments of his life. Did he subconsciously cry out for mercy, like the thief on the cross? More personally, I wondered if I was spared from cancer so I could be there. I’m just glad we were there. I’m glad it went the way it did.  I’m thankful for the wonderful people of God who were over for the evening.

Most of all, I am so glad that God has a great plan. I’m glad I know Him, and I pray that I will be in His will for all my life. Whenever you are in a hard place, call out to Him. He will show you what the next step is.