To Bear you up

by Janice Price
Published February 14, 2005

I’m acrophobic, which means I have a fear of wearing high heels, ice skating, surfing or any other activity that takes my feet off of solid ground. I would prefer to move rather than climb a ladder to change a light bulb on the ten foot ceiling inside this house. So why do I keep trying to fly?

I’ve had a lot of practice so I know from personal experience that once the body is airborne it will eventually connect with something solid and bone-jarring, if not bone-breaking. After all, what goes up does have to come down and the earth isn’t paved with feather mattresses to soften the landing.

I tied my dog Merci and my puppy Buddy to the porch railing for a while this afternoon. Buddy wound his lead around the bushes and then cried when he couldn’t walk forward any more. He saw me coming down the porch steps to rescue him and he lunged forward to greet me. This raised his lead and pulled it taut, directly in front of my forward-moving leg. I saw the lead snap tight, but I was off balance, and it was too late to stop the forward momentum. My leg hit the lead and I was flying. I wasn’t falling. I was flying.

I landed on the cement walk well past the bottom step. I would prefer to never do this again, but since I am adept at flying short distances, I can attest to the fact that the landing was softer than many others I have experienced. Amazingly, I didn’t break anything. I acquired some aches and pains, and possibly some bruises, but the main injury seems to be the huge dent in my pride.

I relived that short flight in my mind tonight and I was reminded of Psalms 91:11-12. For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

I have many memories of painful, slow-healing injuries from a variety of accidents over a lifetime. There have also been a few times when God’s angelic protection was manifested in a clear and unforgettable way.

I walked carefully down the porch steps early one rainy morning several years ago. One foot slid forward off the step and I began to fall backward. I should have landed on my tailbone on the edge of a step behind me. But the fall seemed to go in slow motion and I landed softly on the top step.

This is one of the rare instances where I was aware of protection from potential harm as the accident was in progress, but more often I’m rather dense and God has to remind me, as he did today, of his plan of protection.

A year ago I tripped and went flying across the bedroom. Suddenly, I dropped straight down like a lead weight onto the carpet. I screamed with the pain of landing on a knee that was already injured, but when I was finally able to move, I found I was “this” close to crashing head-first into the corner of a heavy table. Just a shave more and my injuries could have been life threatening.

Perhaps you can remember a time of God’s protection, when he sent his angels to “bear you up” and you came through an emergency situation unscathed, or perhaps a time when you came through an accident bruised when you know you should have been broken.

I wonder how often God’s angels bear us up and we are oblivious, unaware or unthankful of it.

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