“The sea looked and fled, The Jordan turned back;”
~ Psalm 114:3
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you experienced something unexplainable? Unexplainable experiences totally belie coincidence. An unexplainable experience is something that happened outside of everyday life’s norms. Unexplainable experiences have implications that tend towards being unbelievable or miraculous. An unexplainable experience may involve a series of interconnected normal happenings that lead to the sensing that a Divine Being – God, was Who had pulled the strings for the unexplainable experience to happen. An unexplainable experience may be an unexpected, organic crisis that leads to sensing in an inexplicable way of having been protected by the presence of a Divine Being – God. Your grandpaa a couple of days ago had an unexplainable experience happen to him. Your grandpaa was driving his Ford F-150 pickup on a winding, gravel road that goes from Cobán to Campur in Guatemala. This winding, rutted gravel road in some places is only wide enough for a single vehicle to pass at a time. If your grandpaa met another vehicle at some places on this road, your grandpaa or the driver of the other vehicle would have to pull into or back into a ‘switch’ that has been cut into the embankment alongside the road or that has been cleared off alongside the edge of the road. The winding road often edges deep bowl like depressions. The sides of the bowl like depressions at times drop off very steeply for hundreds of feet. When your grandpaa drives this road, your grandpaa has to always be ready to brake – especially when he is getting ready to go around a blind curve as there might be another vehicle coming around the blind curve from the other direction. Every guy who drives this winding road between Cobán and Campur will invariably have to stop several times to let another vehicle pass. When your grandpaa sensed a couple of days ago that he was driving too fast on a short, straight narrow stretch of road with a blind curve coming up a short distance ahead, your grandpaa began to brake. Just as your grandpaa was about to go around the blind curve, a pickup suddenly came around the blind curve from the opposite direction. Your grandpaa immediately squashed his pickup’s brake pedal. As your grandpaa pushed the brake pedal through his Ford F-150 pickup’s floorboard, your grandpaa steered his skidding pickup towards the side of the high embankment. Your grandpaa was not worried about hitting the side of the embankment; your grandpaa just did not want the pickup that was coming right at his pickup to hit his pickup. The side of the road where the other pickup had to pass your grandpaa’s pickup dropped off at least a hundred feet pretty much straight down. If your grandpaa had not sensed an unexplainable prompting to slow down his Ford F-150 pickup, your grandpaa would have met the pickup coming towards him in the middle of the curve – which would have left your grandpaa and the driver of the other pickup almost no time to stop.
An unexplainable experience can be like what your grandpaa had a couple of days ago. One moment your grandpaa and the guy with him – Hector, were talking; the next moment your grandpaa had another pickup heading right for the driver’s side fender of your grandpaa’s Ford F-150 pickup. Another moment later, your grandpaa and Hector were looking at each other wondering how in the world the other pickup had not hit your grandpaa’s pickup or how in the world your grandpaa had not hit the other pickup with his pickup. Your grandpaa and Hector realized right away that they had just been inexplicably kept from being in an accident. Your grandpaa and Hector would not have been hurt if your grandpaa’s pickup had hit the pickup that was coming right at him as your grandpaa was not driving very fast but . . . because your grandpaa sensed an unexplainable prompting before he normally would have braked to go around a curve that led him to be slowed down before the curve, your grandpaa had the time to quickly do some evasive driving. Your grandpaa though can still feel his Ford F-150 pickup’s tires skidding and then hitting something that kept his pickup from striking the embankment. Your grandpaa does not know how the driver of the other pickup got past your grandpaa’s pickup without tumbling into the deep bowl like depression but . . . he did.
Suppose that you are Israelite kids. You would be living about 3500 years ago. God has made your people group of guys, gals and kids His specially chosen guys, gals and kids. You have just left Egypt – which had been home for you. You witnessed God inflict Egyptian guys, gals and kids with ten different plagues. Your dad and ma told you that they are taking you to a land that God had promised them that they would always have to live in as their very own land. You are scared. Egyptian soldiers are after you to bring you, your family and every other family traveling with you back to Egypt where your dad and ma will once again be enslaved. You arrive at a large body of water called the Red Sea. You think that you are trapped but . . . you suddenly see a wide path open up through the Red Sea. You are able to walk through the Red Sea on dry ground between walls of water. It is now forty years later. Because your dad and ma did not trust God forty years earlier, they are dead. You are now at the River Jordon about to enter the land that God has promised His specially chosen guys and gals that they would always have to live in as their very own land. Just as Levi tribal clan guys stepped into the River Jordon, you witness another wide path open up and . . . you have another unexplainable experience. You pen a psalm song as a hymnic celebration to remember these unexplainable experiences. This psalm song is now Psalm 114. You write in verse 3 “The sea looked and fled, The Jordan turned back;” Your grandpaa is thankful for the unexplainable experiences that God has had him have.
Psalm 114 (343)