the hug that saved my life

A couple of weeks ago I had an interesting experience. My youth pastor and I were preparing to leave the church office to visit someone in the hospital. As we were exiting the building, we paused briefly to inform the office staff of our anticipated whereabouts. Just then a wonderful young woman of God named Lauren Cribb stepped into the office from a door on the opposite side of the room and greeted Pastor Steve and myself. I almost walked out the door before I realized that she was walking across the office to give each of us a hug before we left. I paused for three or four seconds, collected my hug, and then we were out the door.

We walked out to my car, slid into our seats, fastened our seatbelts, started the car, and we were on our way. As we were driving, we approached an intersection that had stop signs for the cross traffic. As we neared the intersection, a car blew past the stop sign and drove halfway through the intersection before the driver realized what was happening and managed to stop the vehicle.

My first reaction was to remark about how careless the driver was and how he should really slow down on small side streets. (Okay, what I said wasn’t that nice-sounding. I probably made some comment about the driver's level of intelligence, but I have since repented.) As I was speaking, I suddenly realized that being delayed for our hug was what kept us from being in that intersection when that car ran the stop sign. So, I offer my thanks to Lauren for giving me a hug that saved my life.

Alright…I know I'm being overly dramatic. I don’t really know what would have happened to me physically if we had been in a collision with that car. I can’t say that it would have ended my life, but I’m absolutely confident that it wouldn’t have been pretty. If we had been three or four seconds farther along on our trip, he would have plowed into my driver’s side door at a high enough rate of speed that I would have been badly injured in the very least. The collision was avoided because of the time it took to receive a hug.

That got me to thinking (which in and of itself is a dangerous proposition). I began to wonder how many times God has spared me from something that would have brought me pain – whether physical or emotional – by sending someone or allowing some circumstance into my path that in one way or another helped me avoid disaster. I wonder if there have been times when my car wouldn’t start and I chalked it up to aggravating happenstance, but it was actually the mercy of God keeping me out of harm’s way. I wonder if there have times when I was frustrated by another person’s “slowness” when it was actually the hand of God steering me toward safety. I wonder if there has ever been a moment when someone cut me off in traffic and I responded with a barrage of anger directed at the driver, when it was actually God impeding my progress to keep me away from danger. I may never know, but it causes me to stop and give Him thanks for His mercy, even if there are times I am desperately unaware of it.

The flip side of the coin is this: God can use each of us to cause another person to veer out of the path of danger – whether it’s physical, emotional, or spiritual danger. What if God wants me to give someone a hug because He knows it will help remind that person that they are loved by their Creator? What if one of your friends is about to give up and God sends you with a word of encouragement to derail the locomotive of discouragement? What if someone is hurting and God sends you to be a salve of healing as you embrace them with your heart?

This is why it’s so important for us to cultivate sensitivity to the whisper of the Spirit. Listen for His voice and offer what you have to Him. It may seem small and insignificant to you, but He delights in taking things that are small and insignificant and doing marvelous miracles with them. He can use something as simple as a smile, a card, a handshake, a word of encouragement, or a hug. Whatever it is, don’t hesitate to give it away in Christ’s name. You never know…your hug might just save someone’s life.