The Close Call

Preface
It has been said that the veil between life and death is very thin. When we reach the other side, I’m sure we will all be surprised to learn of the many close calls that we all experienced in our life, most of which we were totally unaware of. Many times our safety and well being is totally dependent on circumstances beyond our control. A simple unexpected detour in our daily routine could possibly be the tool that prevented us from being at the wrong place at the wrong time. With that thought in mind, I give you the following miracle that God allowed me to be apart of.

The Close Call

It was not an unusual Wednesday night. My wife and I were at our Church and planned to stay after the Wednesday night service to prepare for an upcoming church event. My plans were to stay and assist my wife however, for some unknown reason, I decided to go home early. At the time, I was self-employed and owned a small machine shop. It was located near my home and to make the trip home from church, I must pass by it. As I approached it, I noticed a business partner was at my shop. This was not unusual at night. Many times, we would spend the evening completing work that we were behind on. However, as I approached my shop, I noticed something unusual. I noticed a door that we never open being open. The reason we never opened this door was because there was a machine weighing about 2000 lbs blocking the passageway. This door was normally locked with one outside lock and three inside locks. I immediately began to wonder why my friend had this door open, but the fact that it was open did not raise any concern for me. As I passed by, I glanced straight into the open passageway left by the open door. My immediate reaction was "Where is the machine that is normally blocking the door? " and "Something looked strange!". I slammed on my brakes and threw my car into reverse. I had a fear of what I thought I saw. As I got out of my car, my fear was confirmed. I could hardly believe my eyes. My friend had attempted to move the machine with machine moving casters and had turned the machine over on top of him, pinning him to the floor. The only thing visible through the door was his legs. I could hear his moans of pain and I knew his time was short. I reassured him as I quickly analyzed the situation and I realized he only had minutes left...if that long. I knew I needed help. The house next door was only a few hundred feet way. I ran to the house and yelled for my neighbor to come help. We were long time friends and we often pulled practical jokes on each other so he thought I was joking and was hesitant to come along. I could not stand there and try to convince him. I raced back to my shop and quickly began searching for a long pry bar. My business partner appeared lifeless but I could still hear an occasional groan. I knew our time was running out. I quickly found a long piece of pipe to use as a pry bar just as my friend rounded the corner to satisfy his curiosity about my plea for help. He immediately realized that this was not a joke at all. I instructed my friend to grab his legs and pull when I lifted the machine. I knew this was dangerous but this was our only choice and his only chance. I knew that even if I was able to lift the machine, we ran a huge risk of the pry bar slipping and dropping the machine again not to mention the danger of moving him without knowing the extent of his injuries. With one heave, I lifted the machine and my neighbor pulled him out. His color was a ghostly green but he was breathing. Within a few moments his color began to improve and he began to re-gain conscienceness. We rushed him to a local ER where they found several broken ribs and treated him for various abrasions, cuts, and bruises. When I questioned him about the accident, he did not remember me arriving. All he remembered was with each breath he exhaled, he was able to inhale less air each time due to the weight of the machine. He knew he was suffocating and that he was probably going to die, but I guess God had other plans.
Later, when I returned to my shop, I discovered the real miracle. Up to this point, I had assumed my friend had opened the door. The door was hinged to open to the outside only. In fact, its design would not allow it to open to the inside at all. As I mentioned the door was bolted on the inside with three different locks. The locks consisted of a surface mount dead bolt, a hasp with a master lock, and a simple hook latch like you would use on a screen door. As I examined the inside locks, I could hardly believe my eyes. The locks had been sheared off as if the door had been opened to the inside. The screws on the door facing were ripped out while all the hardware on the door remained on the door. The marks around the screw holes on the door facing looked as if the mounting screws were pulled straight out of the door facing toward the inside of the room, not ripped sideways toward the door as you would expect. Then there was the lock on the outside. It was a hasp type with a master lock. It was pulled off in the outside direction ripping the screws from the outer door facing just as you would have expected it to be. I tried to rationalize how this might have happened. The machine must have hit the door when it turned over I thought, but there were no marks on the door indicating any type of impact. How could the door have been pushed inward enough to shear off the inside locks? What pushed the door outwards to shear off the outside lock? If the door had not been open, I would have never seen my business partner. He would have suffocated. The only explanation is a miracle had taken place. If I hadn't came home early, if the door hadn't been open, or if my neighbor hadn't been home, my business partner would have died. That is a Miracle!!

Psalm 91:11-14a “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the serpent. “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;” “ NIV