The day God saved my life …. perhaps

About 30 years ago, I believe God intervened to save me from serious harm. Let me tell you about it.

What happened

About 30 years ago now, as part of my job, I used to have to drive regularly on a small winding country road between Sydney and Muswellbrook, a town 4 hours north. (For anyone familiar with the Sydney area, the road was along Wollombi Brook. It was the roughest of the 3 possible routes, but in those days it was the shortest, and I enjoyed the trip through the sparsely settled countryside.) For about 20 km or so, the road was unsealed gravel, twisting as it went alongside the river bank, and with limited view of the road ahead.

On one trip I was returning to Sydney about 4:00 pm, and was on the unsealed section of road, approaching a bend to the right. I think it was the bend in the picture above, but the road has been sealed and probably re-aligned since then, and trees would have grown and been cut down so I cannot be sure. I was probably pretty relaxed (I sometimes get a bit sleepy when driving at that time after a long day) when a completely alien thought went through my mind: “If I keep driving and a truck comes round that bend on the wrong side of the road, I’ll be dead.”

My wife and I pray together each day for safety and guidance, so I didn’t really think any more, I just braked. And yes, of course you guessed it, a truck did come around the bend, bumping sideways on the corrugations so it was over on my side of the road. The truck fishtailed over the narrow road as the driver tried to control his skid on the corrugations, and he straightened by the time he got to me, about 100m back from the bend. But of course, had I not slowed, I’d have been about 50m closer, and definitely in the wrong spot.

I cannot say how bad the accident would have been, but being hit by a large truck is not recommended!

Was it God?

Of course I cannot say that the thought came from God. But what I can say is that I don’t ever recall having such a clear thought about a possible accident any other time in my 50 years of driving, and I never had another incident like that on that road.

Now there are dozens of similar bends on the gravel section of road and I travelled that road perhaps 30 times on 15 return trips. So this incident was, perhaps one in a thousand. So it seems to me that the odds are against such a warning thought occurring by chance, so either this was a psychic phenomenon, or someone outside me warned me.

I believe it was God, and I remain thankful, and we still pray together for God’s care of us every morning.