By Deborah McCormac
Divine intervention saved my life. Had I not heeded the message I received that fateful day, I would not be alive to tell this story.
When I was fourteen, our family attended the graduation party for the daughter of some friends who lived rather far away. My dad had gotten interested in handguns and had purchased a revolver. He wanted to show the graduate’s dad the gun, as he, too, owned handguns. I was a tomboy, a term not heard often now, which is a girl interested in things considered more appropriate for boys. So, my dad had taught me how to shoot skeet, and we also went to target practice together.
The graduate’s dad showed my dad his 9 mm semi-automatic. He loaded a magazine into it with nine bullets. The pistol had a slide-back mechanism that allowed the shooter to dislodge a bullet loaded into the barrel without having to fire it. As the friend emptied the magazine in this manner, I was picking up the bullets from the living room floor and handing them to my dad who counted them. He was standing in front, but a bit to the side of the friend.
As I was about to stand up, I heard a voice—not the friend’s, not my father’s, not my own—tell me very loudly and clearly, “DON’T STAND UP!” Being a teen and at times rebellious, I thought, “What?, Really?” And I almost stood up. I heard the voice again, “DON’T STAND UP!” I stayed put.
The friend had stood back and pulled the trigger, thinking the gun was empty. The gun fired!
One bullet was obviously in the chamber before loading the magazine. Had I stood up, I would have taken a clean shot through my left temple. Was that the voice of the Holy Spirit? Or, as someone mentioned in a Circle of Atonement meeting, was it a healer who responded to an urgent call? All I know is that not only was I spared, but nobody else was harmed. No matter who delivered the message, we were protected. I am thankful for that timely “divine” intervention, guidance that delivered a miracle to me.
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Miracles demonstrate that learning has occurred under the right guidance, for learning is invisible, and what has been learned can be recognized only by its results. [CE T-12.X.1:1]
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