November 5, 2023 - The Walker

    Last evening Teresa and I attended the church Harvest Party at the Shields/Handshoe estates.  Fellowship is a great thing for a church family.
     We decided to go to Nicholasville on the way home because there was something that we wanted to pick up at a store there.
     Night had fallen.  There was the glare of the headlights from the oncoming traffic on the KY state highway.
     Then there he or she was.  A person wearing dark-colored clothing was walking on the white line that marked the edge of the road.  He was walking in the same direction as we were heading and was not looking at the traffic at all.  Just walking.
     I swerved to miss him.
     This morning I still have the same “pit in my stomach” feeling that I felt after we missed him.  Had we met an oncoming car at the time we met him I have no doubt that we would have struck him. 
     He was either on something, was intending to be injured or killed, or was very foolish.
     It was only by God’s grace that we did not meet an oncoming car and only by God’s grace that we did not strike the person.
     Theologians call it prevenient grace.  I have mentioned it before in these blogs.  Prevenient grace is “grace that goes before.”  It is God’s watchful care over us, preventing something or not allowing something to happen that could have happened.
     I believe that God’s prevenient grace is active in our lives most every day.  When we step into glory and no longer see in a mirror dimly, Paul writes that we will understand fully.  Part of understanding fully might very well be how many times God’s prevenient grace was active when we had no clue.  Maybe the accidents we missed or the illnesses we didn’t catch.  It could be lots of things.
     As I look back over my life I see many instances where God’s prevenient grace was evident and active in my life.  How my life would have turned out differently had God’s grace not been there!  If the worst thing that could have happened would have happened, it is likely that I would not have answered His call to ministry and would not have married Teresa.
     God’s grace comes in many forms.  We are thankful when we experience His saving grace, His sustaining grace, and His sufficient grace. 
     I am also thankful for His prevenient grace.  My life and the walker’s life would have turned out far differently had it not been for God’s grace.
     Lord, I am thankful that You are at work at times when I do not know that You are there behind the scenes.  I am also thankful for those times when I have no doubt that Your intervention prevented some things from happening.  I am thankful that you are actively involved in this world.