The Unseen Life, Part 7

​In our fallen world, God continues to buffer His people against the calamities they face from time-to-time. Satan, too, is aware of our Lord’s covering mercy, grace and love towards His creation, as the inimitable story of Job informs us. The mysterious and inexplicable presence of the ‘fourth man’ (c.f., Daniel 3) in our lives is at times palpable, but seemingly inconsequential on most occasions, as to escape our peripheral sensing. And God doesn’t normally elucidate on His intentions nor His rationale for these interventions. Nevertheless, its reality is significant, due largely to His own redemptive goal and testimonial legacy of ‘chesed’, especially towards society’s disenfranchised. 
 
An emergency request arrived just after sunset, from a concerned parent, whose youngest child had refused food throughout the day. He was listless and sitting quietly by himself, not as playful as he usually was. I sat on the floor with the child, a couple of feet from me. His temperature was normal, and he wasn’t in any pain. I pushed a piece of colourful Lego towards him and he brightened up a little and began playing with it. After about five minutes observing the boy, I prayed silently for wisdom on a diagnosis for the child. Within a minute, he started retching for a few seconds, and eventually vomited out a small white ball. Immediately, I thought it was probably a small piece of toy he had inadvertently swallowed. I brought the kerosene lamp closer to see what it was, and ‘the ball’ began to move. His mother screamed. I quickly moved back. It was a nine-inch round worm disentangling itself. Then we all laughed. The mother followed me back to our home to collect some de-worming medicine for her child.  
 
We were making our way back to our town in a minivan. Along the highway, to avoid a head-on collision with a larger bus that was attempting to overtake another vehicle, the minivan driver ran our transport into a 15-metre-deep ditch on our side of the road. As we descended at a 45-degree angle into the ditch, I realized time had slowed down for us. Somehow, in slow motion, passengers in the van were slowly being shifted towards its front, as most of us were holding on to the central railing above our heads. No one screamed or acted irrationally. No one was crushed because of the descent. Then, suddenly, it hit the bottom of the ditch with a slight jerk; akin to landing on a giant cushion. We safely made our way out of the vehicle, and passengers from other vehicles who had stopped by, were helping us climb up the slope. No one seemed hurt or badly bruised. We boarded another minibus to continue our journey home. Another deliverance to thank our Lord. 
 
It was just before my Elementary School’s 6th Year National Examination, and my third aunt brought me to her favourite medium. My mother and aunt were curious to know how I would do in the exam and what the future held for me. As a 12-year-old, I sat through the session of chanting, watching the medium fiddled with his fortune sticks and cards, alternately referencing his countless manuals, and going in and out of trances, wondering in amazement how all this would conclude. Finally, after nearly an hour, he turned to us and said he was unable to predict how I would do in the exams nor was he able to tell my future, as my birth date and destiny charts do not match and there were no explanations in his manuals about the incongruence. My aunt looked surprised since he had foretold all her three children’s results and futures. We went through another round of re-checking my uneventful life cycle. Nothing changed. The medium was flabbergasted; it had not happened to him before. Over the years, I am still tickled by this incident. Was there divine intervention in this fortune-telling business on that day? Or was it due to the medium’s inexperience? Was the lesson on faith for my aunt? We will know one day!