After posting the story "Can You Spare a Minute" I spent the next hour or so in prayer before going to bed. As I climbed into bed I thought about the story again. "I hope people like it." I thought. I wondered if anyone would realize that I had placed myself in the story. I was the stranger asking people to please just take a moment to pray. As I pulled my covers over me, I whispered one more prayer, "I love you Jesus" and then I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep.
Early the next morning I awoke to a loud buzzing noise. "Is that the house alarm going off?" I wondered as I scrambled out of bed towards the alarm. As I reached the alarm I heard the words "Carbon monoxide detected in the basement."
"What? Oh my gosh, get up! Everybody get up!" I screamed as I ran for the basement stairs. Three of my kids were sleeping down there! The panic in my voice cut through the dreams of my sleeping children and within minutes we all ran out of the house.
Within minutes three fire trucks pulled up to investigate. The firefighters calmly approached and asked what was running in the house. "Nothing we were all sleeping." I said.
"We'll need to determine if there are carbon monoxide levels in the house."
"Ok I'll show you were the furnace is." I said hoping this was just a false alarm.
I led the firefighters into the house and as we reached the bottom of the stairs one of the firefighters said, "We need to leave the house. I'm already getting unsafe levels. We need to get our masks."
As the firefighters went back inside with their masks, my children and I sat in our car. "Thank God we have an alarm system!" my daughter said.
I looked at my half dressed children wrapped in their blankets they had grabbed as they left their beds and said, "Thanking God is exactly what we should be doing right now." Only a week earlier the news had reported the tragic deaths of a family of six that had died in their sleep from carbon monoxide poisoning. Our story would have sadly been the same. With a minute to spare the merciful hand of God reached into our lives and warned us.
I write this story today for a couple of reasons. First, I intend to spend this day and all my days praising God's mercy and I would like to invite everyone to do the same. Secondly, I would like everyone to recognize that God is trying to protect all of us from unseen harm or danger. We may not always get a loud annoying sound waking us up, sometimes it is the quiet whisper of Truth, the caring voice of a friend, the uneasy feeling in your stomach and sometimes it is a stranger reminding you to pray. So I'll ask you all again in this story-"Can you spare a minute to praise and thank God today?" and if you know of anyone who could benefit from this story will you please share it with them?"
Thank you and God bless you!
Susan
