My Hour Had Not Yet Come

I will die one day, but until then I will escape death, one way or another. The trick, of course is knowing if my hour has come, or not. I have mentioned several times that God promised my current husband and I would grow old together in health. I have stood on that promise several times, and yet, in the back of my mind, I know the hour of my death will eventually come. Will I know the hour? Or, will it come as a surprise?

So far, premonitions have preceded the biggest tragedies. In some cases, pre-knowledge allowed me to avert the danger. Most of the time, God sent the premonitions to prepare me for heartbreaking circumstances. Other times, the dreams and visions preceded a miracle.

The moment we planned an extended trip in our RV, the dreams and visions began. Over and over the same scene played out in my mind. I saw a steep narrow road, the ground falling away thousands of feet into a canyon. For reasons not explained in the premonition, we fail to negotiate the turn. 

In the scene, my husband turns to me the moment the truck leaves the roadway, and says, “I am so sorry, Sweetheart.”

I clasp his hand and reply, “It’s not your fault.”

My next thought, “God, if this is your will…”

The scene vanished at that point, only to replay hours later.

Three days before our planned departure, my husband and I took the truck down to the neighborhood market for supplies. On the way back, the power steering and the brakes failed.

 Miracle One: we were on a straight section of road only fifty yards from the house.

Miracle Two: we were already slowing down to make the turn onto our street, and the compression from the engine was enough to stop the truck without the breaks.

Miracle Three: My husband managed to wrestle the truck into our driveway. This was no small feat. A three-quarter ton, four by four truck is very heavy, and almost impossible to turn without power steering.

The scenes depicting our sailing off a cliff took on a deeper, frightening meaning. If we had been towing our travel trailer at fifty-five miles an hour on a steep curve…

After the incident, the scenes stopped. The anxiety I felt over our impending trip evaporated.

Our mechanic’s report: one of the tensioners on the serpentine belt froze, causing the belt to break. That stopped all electrical functions in the truck. As it wasn’t a difficult, or overly expensive repair, we set off on our five state vacation with only a one-day delay.

With the benefit of hindsight, perhaps we should have called the trip off. This brush with near disaster was only the beginning of a series of near death escapes, and unexpected challenges.

To Be Continued….