Esther 6-10

My daughter and I love to look for the little ironies in life.  So, we were tickled to read how Haman’s attempt to manipulate King Xerxes into honoring him above all others backfired.  Instead, the King used Haman’s grandiose ideas to honor Haman’s worst enemy: Esther’s Uncle Mordecai!

It was ironic…but it was also miraculous.

I am still stunned by a miracle that happened to me today.  My co-director and I received permission to go to the old church (the one with the sagging ceiling) to retrieve some of our supplies.  We decided to meet there at 4:30.  At first I was thinking 4:00…but something made me settle on 4:30.

Get ready for some chills…

At 4:10 this afternoon, the floor from the second story collapsed.  If we had gone there at 4, we likely would have been upstairs when it fell.  The fall broke the water sprinkler pipes, which promptly flooded the building with enough water to fill a swimming pool, triggered the fire alarm, and brought out the fire department.  The building is still not stable; creaks and cracks are audible from above.  A person standing in the fellowship hall looking up can see the walls of the classrooms.

Needless to say, we did not retrieve any of our supplies.  I am so thankful that I procrastinated today!  So thankful that the Lord kept me safe.  So thankful that the collapse happened when nobody was in the building and not on our regular meeting day.

As I stood there bathed in the flashing lights of the fire trucks and the fire alarm from the church, I got goose bumps as it hit me: I could have been buried in the rubble!

But I was not.  Today was a good day to procrastinate.  The Lord’s hand kept me and others from harm.  His mercy…I am nearly speechless.

My heart goes out to the church as they look ahead to rebuilding and sorting through the mess.  But I know that they, too, celebrate with me that if this had to happen, it did so at a time when no one was in the building…and that they had some sort of warning that a failure was possible.

Thanks be to God for ironies…and for miracles.