The God of Second Chances

He is a God of second chances and thirds and fourths and so on and so on.....
The man was not old, but not young.  She had watched him quietly eat his meal and pay his check.  Kind enough to the waitress to be noticed but not overly kind as to be perceived as flirtatious.  Handsome and a bit rugged, she had sat and listened as her friend rambled on and she wondered what this man’s story was.  She was always on the lookout for opportunities to meet interesting people.  This man, well something about him seemed interesting.  She let her mind drift to the people she had met in her life, people she had been able to share a piece of her story with, people she had shared a piece of her God with.  Suddenly she was brought back to the table and out of her thoughts as Mindy asked her what she thought.  Searching her mind for bits and pieces of what she had heard Mindy say she muttered….hhhmmmmm as she tried to come up with a good answer.  Then she threw out the best answer she had, what do you think God would say?  She turned the question around on Mindy, after all God was paying much better attention than she had been.  And with that she engaged back in conversation with Mindy and waited for the check to come so they could step outside and then head to church.  It was Wednesday after all.

They paid the check and pushed through the doors into the cool crisp air.  There walking a few steps in front was the gentleman she had noticed inside.  Intently looking at his phone, then taking a few steps he was in a hurry but unable to do two things at one time it would seem.  She noticed him lean a bit to the right and then suddenly he went down face first.  He didn’t just trip, it was like he was a marionette and someone had suddenly just cut the strings.  He fell hard, half on the pavement and half on the grass and didn’t move.  She was paralyzed.  Mindy turned to see what she was staring at with her mouth gaping wide open.  OOOOHHH!  Screamed Mindy and they both began to run towards the man.  He wasn’t that far away and yet time seemed to stand still, she felt as though she was running in slow motion. Aas she kept her eyes on the man she felt an eerie shutter run up her spine. 

She blinked as she looked at the man, Mindy was trying to dial 911 but in her mind everything went quiet….sitting on the man’s chest was a demon of some sort.  She stood still as it looked at her with yellow eyes and sharp teeth.  A cross between a rabid dog and a contorted bent man;  it’s front feet with long nails enveloping  the man’s heart.  She blinked again, her very breath seeming to echo in her ears, in the background she could hear Mindy telling 911 where they were. A very long second passed by, she was still simply staring at the thing; Demonic reality staring at her as she stared back at it.  Tick tock, tick tock went the seconds in her ears.  Jesus, she whispered in shock at what she was seeing and grasping at the only answer she knew.  Jesus, she shouted louder and bolder.

Then just as suddenly as she saw it, it was yanked off or flew off or something….it was just gone.  The man jumped up, she heard Mindy say, uuuhhh wait, he just got up?  She heard Mindy tell 911 to hold on.  She knew she should move but wasn’t sure what to do.  She stepped quickly to the man and put her hand on his arm.  Sir, please wait you were just lying flat on the ground, out cold we need to make sure you are all right.  She was thinking to herself, sir you were just in the grip of something terribly demonic I don’t think you should just go to your truck and drive off.  Of course she didn’t say that, how crazy would that sound? 

The man looked at her; his eyes didn’t seem cloudy or confused.  He seemed just as he had before kind and intentional.  He rubbed some grass off the bridge of his nose and said he had to pick somebody up from the airport.  She felt certain he was in some sort of shock, she asked him his name and date of birth thinking perhaps this would help them access that he was coherent.  After all that is what they seem to do in the movies.  She wasn’t a nurse, nor a doctor but she knew this man should take a moment before driving.  As she looked into his green and brown eyes she suddenly thought she might know him, maybe that was why she had been drawn to him in the restaurant.   No, as she searched his weathered face she realized she didn’t know him but she saw something in him. 

Sir, are you a Christian? She asked him.  Why yes I am he said, with a half crooked smile playing on his lips.  Mindy standing beside them starts rattling on with the 911 operator about how the man seems fine now and hangs up.  She contemplates what to tell him and then just blurts it out.  Well, let me tell you what I just saw.  It is gonna sound pretty crazy but it seemed very real to me.  I saw something demonic sitting upon your chest and for several seconds it just sat there and then suddenly it seemed to be ripped off or jumped off and then you just stood right up!  The man took his hat off, rubbed his head grinned  and said, that doesn’t seem to strange to me at all. 

It doesn’t she exclaimed.  No, he started explaining that he was a Pastor and God had already saved his life once before.   He is certainly a God of second chances he said.   He chuckled to himself as he walked away.  He sat down in his truck, thought to himself about how good he felt.  He ran his hand over the defibrillator implanted in his chest.  This heart that they tell me is to big must still have work to be done, he thought to himself.  And with that he put it in gear and drove off to pick up his friend, he didn’t want to be late for this important divine connection. 

In the meantime as he pulled away, Mindy said she had never seen anything like that before.  The woman paused looked at Mindy and then said to no one in particular except herself, that man still has work to do.  Then off they went to church to share the story of one man’s encounter with death and the power of God to end the assignment of the evil one against this pastor.  She had received a vision that not many will see but one that is happening all around us, all the time.  We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spirits and principalities.  She had the privilege of seeing what most of us miss, the battle that rages continually.  She knew in her heart that the name of Jesus released the power and authority over the demonic in that moment.  Next time she wouldn’t be still for so long…….next time she would say the name of Jesus much sooner. 

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