God Spotting: Episode 1

Disclaimer: the rules of engagement are:
1) I heard the story first-hand from the person who experienced it.
2) I trust this person. I am sure they are telling the truth.
3) I'll respect the person and keep their identity a secret.
4) I leave it to the reader to decide if they believe in a God who...

This was many decades ago. He was a child, perhaps 5 years old, when it happened.

He was in his house playing next to the fireplace, doing whatever he was doing. No one else was near him. There was a fire going in the fireplace, and his father was in a different room... shaving in the bathroom, to be precise.

All of a sudden, his dad came rushing into the room, grabbed him and forcefully threw him away from the fireplace.

And just then it happened. The fireplace exploded.

An aerosol lying among some garbage in the fireplace had blown up.

He could have been injured. Blinded? Killed? Hard to know.

Because it didn't happen. His father threw him to safety.

Why? How did his father know? This question haunts him to this day.

It's not that he lacks an answer. It's the answer itself that haunts him.

"How did you know?" he had asked his father.

"God told me," his father replied.

I've shared this story with a few friends since hearing it, and I found myself puzzling over one detail. I went back to him with a question.

"God-spotter, why was the household garbage in the fireplace? It was in your house, right? Did you burn garbage that way back then?"

"No, Pilgrim. That wasn't our ordinary practice. My sister threw the bag of garbage into the fireplace that day. She had never done it before, and she never did it again."

"So your dad had no idea she had done that?"

"No. For all my life I cannot escape it. I know God saved me from harm that day."