By Dr. Ted Baehr
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
-Isaiah 43:2
Do you need amazing grace?
Every news report of tornados anywhere in the USA reminds my family vividly of God’s grace and miraculous intervention many years ago.
In 1983, when I was living in Atlanta, having just moved from New York City and not used to being in tornado territory, a vicious tornado cut across northern Atlanta, tearing off part of the roof of the governor’s mansion and headed right toward our house.
Not knowing what was happening, my wife yelled at me that something strange was happening with the weather just as a tornado headed straight for us. I said a quick prayer for protection and foolishly continued to talk with a ministry leader on the phone while my wife took our little children to lie down in the bathtub.
A few seconds later, she yelled that a tornado had cut thorough our property and destroyed about 16 trees in the backyard and another 15 or so in the front yard. Eventually, we learned that it had removed a piece of our neighbor’s roof, ripped off part of the roof of the governor’s mansion and ripped through a shopping center, tore off the roof and crushed 8 cars under the roof.
I walked outside to look the extent of the damage. My wife was crying about the loss of the beautiful trees, so my young son, Peirce, brought out a roll of Scotch tape to repair the trees. (Later, we sent the picture of him trying to repair the trees with Scotch Tape to 3M, and 3M used it for promotion and gave us a year’s supply of 3M products.)
I was now concerned that I would not be able to drive to the local CBS radio station (WGST) to do my weekly radio program because my driveway and the street in front of our house was blocked by piles of uprooted Georgia pine trees. My neighbor came over and said he had seen the tornado jump over my house and that we were blessed not to be destroyed.
In response to his insights, I praised God and prayed that He would clear the trees blocking my driveway. A traffic jam had developed in front of my driveway because of all the trees that were down at that precise point. Miraculously, at the front of the traffic jam at my driveway even though we were near the heart of Atlanta, there was a logging truck with three drunken loggers, who were trying to ram to the trees out of their way. This was a comical answer to prayer.
I approached the two men and one woman in the truck and suggested that it would be better for them to get out of the truck so they could use their chainsaws to cut and remove the trees blocking the road and my driveway. They did so, and so, thanks be to God, I was able to head to the radio station.
When I got back from the radio program, I realized that the damage was even greater than I had realized, and 30 trees were more than I could handle to get off the property. I started calling tree services. The quotes were daunting from $6,000 to $10,000. One service said they’d have to get a construction crane into our back yard to even begin lifting away the debris.
Weeks later, my wife was upset because we were about to have a Board of Directors meeting at the house, and we needed all those trees cleared away. I told her God would have to intervene, and so I prayed. Then, I went to buy a chainsaw.
When I got back, a logging tree truck was sitting in my driveway. The driver told me he wanted to take all the trees off my property for free to fill his load because the logging mill would not pay him for half a load.
This wonderful adventure taught me several things. It showed that God intervenes to protect His people, He is concerned, and He is in control. More than that it also showed that only when I let go and stopped trying to solve the problem on my own did God solve the problem in surprising and delightful ways that were much better than any I ever expected.
So, let go and let God.
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