An Inch from Death

Narrator: Chris Genthree
 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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Some of the mountains in the beautiful Allegheny range are so steep that they seem almost to crowd against each other. It would have been an endless job to tunnel through them, so when the engineers built the highways, instead of using tunnels, they built bridges that cross from one peak to the next, spanning the lush green valleys and sparkling blue rivers below. On a clear day, the view is spectacular! It was just such a day when Allan, his wife Martha and his cousin Ron were driving from Eagle Rock, Virginia, to visit their family in Anjean, West Virginia.
They had such a pleasant visit that it seemed no time until their vacation was over, and they had to go home and back to work. But the day they left for home was not pleasant. Rain was pouring down out of a dark sky with heavy clouds and making little rivers on the highway. They wound their way up the mountain to the series of high, long bridges they would have to cross before they arrived back at Eagle Rock.
Crossing one bridge, they noticed the valley below was so deep they couldn’t see the tops of the trees. It was scary driving on the slippery bridge.
Suddenly, Allan lost control of the car. Each of their hearts cried out to the Lord for safe keeping as they skidded toward the guardrail, with horrible thoughts of plunging over the edge and hurtling 1900 feet to certain death below. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me” (Psalm 50:1515And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. (Psalm 50:15)). Martha said later that it seemed as though the Lord reached down and put His hand right on their car, stopping it within one inch of the guardrail!
King David told of an even greater deliverance when he said, “Great is Thy mercy toward me: and Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. For Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee” (Psalm 86:13,513For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. (Psalm 86:13)
5For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. (Psalm 86:5)
). Often one or another of us needs to be saved from danger, but every one of us needs to be saved from our sins, or we’ll be plunged into a pit far deeper than that Allegheny valley. That pit is called hell. Don’t let that happen to YOU! Call upon the Lord Jesus for salvation. He loves you and died for you, and He promises, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise [no way] cast out” (John 6:3737All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)).
ML-04/15/2007