March 6^th

Isaiah 43:2, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.”

During Lent we should pause and thank God for all of the wonderful things He has done for each of us.  One of the greatest things He did was provide guidance to save our entire family. 

When I was in the third grade, we (Mom, Dad, me, my brother and sister) were traveling in the first car Dad ever had.  We were on a dirt road that crossed a large creek, and there was a single lane wooden bride.  It had been raining all day and was almost dark.  Dad pulled on to the bride and the water was deep enough that it drowned out the car’s engine.  Dad was going to walk back about one-half mile to a farm to see if they could pull us out.  When Dad stepped out of the car, he went completely under and had to swim to the bank.  He told all of us to stay in the car, since none of us could swim.  He went to that farm and got them to bring a team of mules to pull us out.  The bridge had washed away because of the rapidly moving water.  Only the two four inch rails that held up the bridge remained and Dad had driven out onto them rather than out into the water where we would be swept away and drowned.

Two weeks later Dad took us to one of my uncle’s ponds and taught us kids to swim.  Mother would not go in the water and never learned to swim.  Dad was a trial and error teacher, i.e. he would throw us in let us flounder around until we went under than pull us out.  He would let us rest then throw us back in and before the afternoon was over we could swim.

Years later I finally realized that this was a miracle by God as He directed Dad onto the two beams and not into the raging water.

Jerry Edmondson