In The Hand Of God

Sometimes when I’m heading into a difficult situation — a situation that could have a really bad outcome — I think about my Uncle Arvey.

He was probably one of the smartest men that I knew when I was a kid. He was an engineer, and he was very clinical and very rational and very analytical.

He was everything that my emotional Irish Catholic family wasn’t. Maybe that’s why my Aunt Sally married him.

There’s a story, now it’s part of our family lore, about how he saved his family from possible injury, even death.

It happened back in the early 1960s. He was driving my aunt and my two cousins, Mary and Colleen, on a highway in Wisconsin when a vehicle on the other side of the road crossed the median and headed straight towards their car.

My uncle knew instantly that if the two vehicles collided head on that the force from the impact would kill everyone in both cars.

He processed the engineering consequences of two vehicles colliding head-on, and in an instant he decided that the best scenario would be for him to steer his vehicle so that it would be t-boned by the other one.

He turned his steering wheel hard to avoid a head-on collision and — because of his action — his vehicle was in fact t-boned. Even that impact was so great that it caused his car to flip again and again.

Although he faced almost impossible alternatives he picked the one that gave him and his family the best chance of survival. Because he did, the four of them were able to walk away from the accident. I guess you could say it was an engineering miracle.

My uncle died a few years ago; he was in his mid-90s. Because of his insight on that road more thanr 50 years ago, his family lived; and when he died there were grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.

I have been told that the finest athletes can see the field ahead of them in a most peculiar way. Time seems to slow down for them, allowing them to discern things with a better, clearer sight.

I think that’s what happened to my uncle that afternoon.

But sometimes we don’t get those special insights as we head into difficult situations.

Sometimes God gives us faith. He promises us that He will be with us no matter what.

I have a prayer that I found years ago that seems to help when I’m heading into unknown places.

I don’t know who wrote it, but here are the words: And I said to the angel who stood at the gate of the year, "Give me light so I may tread safely into the unknown." And he replied, "Go out into the darkness and put your hand in the hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way.”

Everyone faces the unknown every day, but sometimes we are so buffeted by our familiar lives that we don’t realize it. We also have days that are so stark and scary that we need a safe place to go. We need somewhere to put our hand. That’s when we need the hand of God.