God watches over us and so often we stumble through our days and lives thinking that we have just narrowly missed disaster by luck or our own abilities, but the truth is God in his sovereign power has held back destruction.
A day or so ago I was to leave and teach an art class at 9 am. As my wife left for her job she told me to turn off the stove when I left since she was simmering a large kettle of beans to have them ready for dinner in the afternoon. There were about two inches of beans in the kettle and they were covered with water and the flame was low. Before going out I had a lot of things to do to get ready for the day and for the class, so of course I forgot.
After the class was over I got into the car and was at the first stop light when I remembered that I forgot to turn off the flame under the kettle. It had been simmering for about three hours. As I waited for the light to change I envisioned the house being burned down, or the kitchen gutted by fire. I hurried home imagining fire trucks with hoses spewing water through broken windows. I thought of my son who was at home who might have been injured or worse. I hopped he had seen the danger and turned off the stove. The best I could have hoped for was a blackened kettle filled with charred remains of the beans.
As I turned onto my street I strained my eyes to see if there was smoke rising over the roofs. When I got to the court I live on I was relieved that no fire engines were blocking the way. When I parked I looked to see no smoke in the windows.
I opened the door carefully remembering movies where the sudden gush of fresh air initiated a fireball. There was no smoke and no nasty stink of burned beans. The stove was still white and a short blue flame glowed under the kettle. I flipped the knob off and gingerly lifted the lid. Inside were beans with a little scalding water. Most of the water was gone but the beans did not appear to be beyond use.
If I had been gone much longer the water would have boiled away and fire erupted. I believe God had reminded me about the beans; and that if he didn't I might have delayed arriving at home and the beans, the kitchen and maybe the house would have been burned.
It was not luck- it was God who always watches over me. I am thankful for his care. It might be that next time the disaster will come and the dinner burned or the house but God will be there too, watching over that situation.
