Saved From The Big Mistake

Sometimes we are saved from a very big mistake.  Sometimes this happens even in spite of ourselves.

We do not realize at the time it would be a huge mistake, of course.  Life in so many ways is a thing which happens in real time and space and the ability to look into the future is denied us (interestingly, the ability to look into the past is not denied us, but few people avail themselves of the opportunity).  All we know is that there is a course of action that we feel we need to take for whatever reason - but for whatever reason we do not take it.

We may be angry.  We may be regretful.  We may even shake our fists at God and say "Why not this path?"  And then we sigh, lower our fists, and trudge on.

Until.

Until something happens, something that that brings the potential big mistake to mind.  Someone that actual went through the process of the big mistake.

All of a sudden our eyes see quite clearly all the ramifications and actions that we could never see when it applied to ourselves.  Whether it be pain for others, financial loss, perhaps even something more drastic or deadly to body or spirit, the ramifications of the action become clear in the life of another.

And suddenly, the almost future becomes clear for ourselves.   Everything that we had not accounted for appears on the fringes of our mind and we start doing the math for the impact of what such a mistake might have cost.  And then, if we are all self aware, we become quietly grateful and weak with relief.

Some people complain that God should have given us the ability to see the future.  I think I now disagree.  Being able to see into the future would no more prevent us from choosing the wrong paths than seeing the historical record of those who make such mistakes in the past.  We believe our situation always to be different, to be special.

The actual miracle is not that we are saved from very mistakes occasionally.  It is that God choses to save us from any of them at all.