Matthew 10:29-31 (ESV)
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of
them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of
your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than
many sparrows.
Lisa Hanisch is married and the mother of two. She was
baptized a Methodist, but the family rarely attended church. “We were taught
that there was a God, and He heard our prayers and guided us,” Lisa says, “but
there was little formal training.” When she was thirteen, for various reasons,
she lost the remnants of her faith, and during these years, she felt very
alone. By the time Lisa was 21, however, she had begun to pray again, and she
found that God was becoming very real. “I had come to realize that everything
happens for a reason, and it’s my job to learn the lesson, not to understand
why. I tell you this so you understand that my belief in angels comes not from
teaching or my grandmother’s yarns, but from actual experience.”
About five years ago, Lisa, her husband Dave and their
two children were doing some Sunday yard work. Dave was trimming tree limbs
that were starting to hang over the roof. He was on the extension ladder,
holding the chain saw, and Lisa was standing on the bottom rung to steady it.
The children were dragging the small branches and debris to the street.
Dave was cutting a good sized limb from a Black Oak tree,
a very heavy and hard wood. “We had done this a hundred times,” Lisa says, “and
Dave knew what he was doing. Each time he cut a limb, he would make a half pass
through it, then cut another pass, and the branch would fall away from us, and
land in the front of the house.” As she says, they had done it frequently.
Dave made his first half-pass through another branch, and
started his second cut. Then, “as I stood looking up at the limb, it suddenly
just broke off for no reason,” says Lisa. “I could see it heading straight for
me and the bottom of the ladder. If I jumped off, it would take out the ladder
and Dave would fall with the chain saw, from quite a way up.” But there wasn’t
time for her to jump away…
Lisa turned her head and lifted her hand palm up, even
with her shoulder. Casually she caught the large branch one-handed! Her arm
recoiled, but she held on and tossed it easily to the side.
Shaken, Dave scampered down the ladder. "Are you all
right, are you all right?" He kept shouting. The kids were horrified. But
Lisa assured everyone that she was fine, and brushed the dirt and loose bark
splinters from her forearm and shoulder. “My arm stung a bit from the
abrasions, but I was really OK and very calm,” she says. "Let's move this
thing to the side," she said to Dave, "and call it quits for
today".
Still somewhat stunned, Dave grabbed a section of the
limb to lift it, while Lisa took hold of a portion on her side. Shocked, their
eyes met. They couldn’t budge it. The limb was unbelievably heavy. Later, when
the children volunteered to help, the four of them could only drag it an inch
or so at a time.
“I knew then, if I had ever questioned it before, that
there are indeed Guardian Angels,” Lisa says. “There was no way I could have
caught that limb by myself and just tossed it aside. It should have landed on
me, and I would have been killed.”
Lisa has never forgotten that moment. She knows she does
not walk through life alone. No matter what the adversity, God will see her
through.
Dear Lord, thank You for taking care of us in ways that
we don’t even know or understand. Help us to always trust You in all of life’s
circumstances. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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