Something rather disturbing happened the other morning while I was on the elliptical trainer…
I saw Jack fall off the top of an inflatable and land on his head. He was going to a play place full of inflatables that very day on a field trip. Once I’d finished my workout and showered, I called Jennifer and told her we can’t let him go because of what I saw. She put him on the phone so I could tell him. That was tough and he cried – can you blame him?
A Love / Hate Relationship
I’d never been the nervous one when it comes to inflatables. Jennifer, on the other end, has struggled with Jack playing on them in the past. When we lived in Wichita there was an accident at a play place that had just opened. I’m not sure of the details but it hit home pretty hard. Since then, one of us would watch him closely almost any time he played on an inflatable.
Today the roles were reversed. Jennifer had no nerves at all and I was totally fine until that vision came into my head. We talked again while I was on the way to work and I told her I was having a tough time knowing if what I saw came from the devil or was a warning from the Holy Spirit telling me to keep him safe and sound that day. I asked Mary to talk to Jesus and ask him to help me clarify what I’d seen. I asked the Holy Spirit to come down and help me make sense of things, as well.
Right away I started to feel better about what I’d seen. There were many things amiss in the vision. Jack fell near a slide but didn’t hit the slide on the way down. He was just there when he fell, no stumble and no push from a playmate. There was no netting around the inflatable and no other kids. Clarity came to me…this was the work of the devil. He was trying to create stress and lead me to live in fear rather than to trust in the Lord.
We Walk by Faith, Not by Sight
A thought came to me of situations where people had a feeling and didn’t get on a plane that later crashed. How ironic considering there must be some people out there who decided not to go see “The Dark Knight Rises” at the last minute on that fateful night in Aurora, CO. Maybe some of them were spoken to by the Holy Spirit but maybe others fell victim to the devil’s charms.
Were they trusting in the Lord or living in fear? Could one of them be the one who could have stopped it from happening? Could one of them have saved lives if they had been there? Was there someone in that theater who heard the voice say, “Don’t go, something bad is going to happen,” but they went anyway?
Doesn’t God call us to walk into the lion’s den sometimes, even though we may never walk out?
We agreed to reject what I’d seen as the work of the evil one and we sent him on his field trip. A few hours later he returned to school with nary a scratch. He left me a cell phone message say he had fun and didn’t get hurt. God is good but the question is still in need of an answer.
Am I ready to walk headlong into harm’s way for the glory of our Lord and Savior? I pray that I am.
Question: Have you ever had a vision of bad things happening to yourself or others that came true? What did it teach you about your faith? I’d love to read your story in the form of a comment below.