Providentially...

Acts of Providence
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Many people have remarkable stories of seemingly miraculous acts of providence in their lives. One such occasion happened to me when I was around 18yo (1983). I was camping at a beach outside of Esperance with some of my friends from Kalgoorlie, and my sister Sarah and some of her Perth friends.

One night we all went to a B&S Ball (Bachelor and Spinster Ball) held in a nearby farm shed. These balls were a major social occasion for young rural people (black tie too).

The ball was a great night of dancing, eating and drinking which lasted well into the next morning. In fact, I recall the sun was just emerging when we started to leave to head back to the campsite.

My friends and I left the shed and walked toward the cars. I was getting a lift with my friend David Lavender in his two door V8 car (I think it was a Monaro from memory and was certainly a two door with a roof sloping down toward the boot.)

Another friend, Evan, bagged the front seat, so I pulled the front seat forward and was about to hop into the back seat, when suddenly I felt a hand on my arm and turned to see my sister Sarah very forcefully pulling me toward her and saying very determinedly that, “ You are not going with them, they have had too much to drink, you are coming with me!”

Sarah left me with no choice and pulled me away. I told David and Evan, I would see them back at camp and went off with Sarah and her friends.

We took a while to leave the ball and were probably half an hour or so behind David and Evan.

As we drove along the gravel road nearing the campsite, we rounded a bend and saw David’s car all severely smashed up and upside down. We stopped and saw that there was no one inside, so we drove quickly to the campsite to see if they were okay.

Near the entrance were David and Evan, all covered in blood and worse for wear but thankfully alive. Just lots of scratches and bruises and being attended to by other campers.

When we stopped at the smashed-up car, we saw that the rear roof had well and truly collapsed down toward the rear seats! The reality of what I saw meant that if I had of been sitting in the back seat, I would most certainly have been dead, squashed between the roof and the seat of the back seat as the car rolled over and over a few times.

I didn’t think about the providential part of this for many years, as I didn’t become aware of God until I became a Christian when I was 33.  But I have thought about this a lot since.

If God had not providentially used my sister Sarah that morning to lead me away from that certain death situation, I would not be writing this account. God used Sarah as His means to rescue me from certain death! That is God’s providence in action.

I later researched this topic of Providence when asked to give a talk in 2009 about John Calvin’s views on this topic at South Yarra Presbyterian Church, specifically as outlined in his book, “The Institutes of the Christian Religion.”

It is a fascinating topic and very helpful. The following are some excerpts from the article I wrote after the talk:

Excerpts: Acts of Providence. Craig Manners - Craig Manners 

(Full article from 2009: Creation and Providence by Craig Manners - Craig Manners )
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Craig Manners