Dad, Mother and their six children were on their way to Lauropoli in southern Italy to visit some friends for their end-of-the-year vacation. As their well-loaded van reached the outskirts of Milan, the fog became so thick that Dad had to slow the van almost to a crawl. Just as they reached the spot where the highway to Rome began, a policeman put up a barricade that prevented them from using the highway. This meant they had to go over local streets through the city of Milan, which made the trip longer. Dad was very discouraged with both the heavy fog and the detour. The fog got so bad that they had to pull off the road for a while at a rest area.
Finally they reached Rome and found a nice place to stay overnight. The next morning as they were getting ready to do some sightseeing in Rome, they heard people talking about a terrible accident in the fog in Milan, involving over a hundred cars and a gasoline truck. Many people had been killed. Now Dad and Mother knew why the policeman had put up the barricade. If they had come to that spot a few minutes earlier, they would have turned onto that same highway and been involved in that terrible accident.
They realized with thankfulness that the fog delays and the detour that had made their trip longer was really a detour from death in the awful flaming wreckage on the highway. The family thanked God for preserving them from unseen danger.
In the Book of Job, chapter 33, we are reminded by Elihu that God keeps us back from going on to certain judgment, even using pain and sickness to detour us from the road to hell. God would deliver us from going down to the pit; He has found a Ransom (verse 24). The Lord Jesus gave Himself as a ransom for all who will believe. Have you received Him as your Saviour? Can you say, “I am redeemed with His precious blood”?
ML-01/05/2014