Chainsaws and Prayers

It was spring.  Lots of spring cleaning kinds of things to do in that kind of weather. I’d made my list of supplies to pick up and was almost ready to leave to run my errands when I looked out the kitchen window.  There in the back yard, my husband, Eric was trimming and cutting away at the fast growing honeysuckle and the bushes and shrubs that were turning into trees.  As he was working with the chainsaw, I had this vision flash into my head.  It was like I had glimpsed into the future.

In this future, only a few hours ahead in time, I was gone and Eric was working at the back of our lot.  As he was working with the chainsaw to trim back this overgrown shrub, one hand slipped off the chainsaw. The chainsaw came crashing down on his left leg, just at the knee and cut deeply into his knee.  He lay there unable to drag himself to the house to call for help.  It was a work day and our neighbors were not home.  There was no one to hear his calls as he slowly bled out. A few hours later, I return home to find my husband dead in the back yard.

This flash all occurred in a split second. It was like being teleported into the future and back.

Oh my, God! What do I do with this?  I stood there staring out the window watching him work.  Knowing if I asked him to stop working until I got back from my errands, he’d think I was nuts.  And then this other knowing came over me, I cannot live my life in fear of what “might be”.  If I live in fear, how will I ever go off and run my errands, now or in the future?  My power to control things is very limited.  I realized that I did have the power to pray.  I chose to believe that evil had planted that fearful thought into my mind at that moment.  I began to pray and rebuke that thought in the name of Jesus, to replace that thought with God’s promises and love.  I prayed that the Holy Spirit would stand guard over my husband and acknowledged she was far better at that than me. I gave my husband’s care over to God. Surrender.  And as, I neared the end of my praying, I was filled with peace. Off I went to run my errands.

A few hours later, I returned home from my errands to find my husband watching sports on tv.  He was bathed and dressed after his afternoon of yard work. He had accomplished a lot of much needed work on the yard.  As I sat next to him on the couch, I noticed a band-aid on his knee.  What’s that band-aid for?  His face flushed with embarrassment.  What an odd reaction, I thought.  It was only a small band-aid.  Then he told me this story.  He said, after I left, he continued working in the yard.  He only had one more tree to trim – one more branch to finish the job.  As he used the chainsaw on this branch, another branch got in the way. When that happened, he didn’t skip a beat – he lifted his left hand off the chainsaw to push the invading branch out of the way and realized that was the wrong thing to do – too late. The weight of chainsaw (still running) caused his right hand to slip and the chainsaw blade came down upon his left knee.  And then, mysteriously, it stopped running.  The blade nicked him, but the chainsaw stopped running.

He was embarrassed that he had made such a mistake of not using two hands to hold the chainsaw AND shocked to explain why it stopped running.  He realized that it could have been a very serious cut – maybe cut his leg off.

I immediately told him how thankful I was that he was okay and that miraculously the chainsaw turned itself off.  Then, I said, I have a story to tell you about just how miraculous I thought your story was.

 

Guardian Angels – An Answer to a Grandmother’s Prayer

I’ve been in the habit of praying for my children, husband, and extended family for a long time.  It isn’t a long prayer – simple really.  God – please watch over my husband, my children and son-in-law, grandchildren, parents, and my sister and her family keep them safe today.  Send your armies of angels to surround them and protect them and keep them safe and from causing harm to others. I am choosing to trust that whatever happens to them, your angels will be there with them. Simple and to the point.  It was how I would start my days and release my loved ones into God’s care.  A way for me to acknowledge that I really have no control over how they chose to live their lives and a recognition that God is always with us.

This story is about my oldest daughter Tina and her daughter, Samantha.  Today, Samantha is 19 years old on Nov. 12.

In 1993, my daughter, Tina and my granddaughter, Sammi were living in a 2 family house not far from us.  Sammi was not yet two years old.  They lived on the first floor and the basement of the house.  Their bedrooms were in the finished basement.  it was late autumn and the nights were turning cold.  Tina had had two weeks of worsening sinus headaches as the weather had changed from summer to autumn.  It had been cold enough that the furnace had started coming on when needed.

It was about 9:30pm and Tina was sitting on her back porch – just outside the kitchen door, talking with a friend.  Sammi had been in bed since about 8pm.  She was such a good kid.  After a read her a story and helped her with prayers, she would lay down and go to sleep for the night.

That night, after being asleep for more than an hour, Sammi woke up screaming.  Tina raced down the basement steps wondering what could have scared the child so.  As Tina, got to Sammi’s crib, Tina realized she (Tina) was having trouble breathing. She grabbed Sammi and barely made it up the basement steps and out the back door without falling. She could feel herself struggling to stay conscious. Once outside, Sammi was crying and Tina was trying to breathe.  Tina realized it must be carbon dioxide in the basement.  Maybe the sinus headache was not a sinus headache.

The gas company sent someone out very quickly.  The CG&E technician went into the basement (with appropriate breathing gear) measured the level of CO2 at  over 1500 ppm and turned off the gas to the house.  He advised Tina anything over 50 ppm was considered dangerous.  He didn’t know how the child had awakened from that.  He later discovered that a bird had built a nest in the flue, preventing the CO2 from properly dispersing. Carbon dioxide puts people to sleep.  You don’t normally wake up.  How did Sammi wake up and have no negative consequences?  I think the angels woke her.  What do you think?

Standards or Guidelines

The OSHA standard for workers is no more than 50 ppm for 1 hour of exposure. NIOSH recommends no more than 35 ppm for 1 hour. The U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards for CO (established in 1985) are 9 ppm for 8 hours and 35 ppm for 1 hour. The Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends levels not to exceed 15 ppm for 1 hour or 25 ppm for 8 hours.