Unseen Protection

Driving home from work late last night, I called my wife. I knew she was out walking, and when she answered she immediately said, “You won’t believe what just happened.”

She was walking through our quiet, quaint neighborhood when she heard a loud crack about seventy-five feet ahead of her. One of the massive trees lining the street suddenly shed a huge branch, sending it crashing onto the road directly in front of her. It was so large it covered most of the street. There was no wind. No storm. Nothing to explain why that branch chose that exact moment to fall.

Had she left the house thirty seconds earlier, she might have been underneath it.

We thanked God for keeping her safe, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the timing—again.

When I was young, someone challenged me to consider how often God may protect us through circumstances we find annoying. Bad traffic. A long line. A scheduling conflict. The forgotten keys that send us back inside. Or perhaps He moves us along more quickly—green lights, short lines, perfect timing. We usually call these things inconvenience or good luck, but how often might they be unseen protection?

Think about it: God is able to move us through a world of eight billion other souls, allowing human free will while still exercising His sovereign influence over our steps. We cannot begin to comprehend the complexity of His providence.

Of course, sometimes tragedy still strikes in one-in-a-million ways, leaving us with questions we cannot answer. God’s protection does not mean nothing painful will ever happen. Faith means trusting His wisdom even when we cannot understand what He allows.

Today, thank God not only for the dangers you know He brought you through, but for the ones you never saw coming.

There may be a million unseen ways God guards your steps every day.