This was about last Thursday.
I like to consider myself a decent cook, but now and then I get into a hurry. With the week we'd had, this was one such a night. I was making a meal for myself and my husband but the pan I normally used wasn't clean.
I had a smaller pan which I *thought* was tempered glass. I tossed a couple of steaks into it and put it under the broiler.
When the steaks were done, I sat the pan on the stove burner, which was covered with a thick cloth potholder. I was standing right in front of the pan when I set it down.
The rest happened in one instant moment:
I didn't hear the words "back up" or "look out."
There was no dramatic sense of danger and I certainly wasn't pushed away by any unseen but palpable force.
But I *know* God said "move" and I *know* my spirit obeyed. I found myself standing back a good three feet (still not really far enough for safety but any further would have put me out the balcony window). I wasn't sure why I moved and didn't consciously decide to jump backwards. When the pan exploded I said "OH!" -- not because I was startled by the explosion, but because I realized *that* was why I had moved away.
My husband heard my yelp and asked if I was alright ... and I said "Well yes...but I kinda exploded dinner."
We left the steaming pile of meat and glass to cool and ordered pizza....
----
It's enough of a miracle that I was inspired to step away from the exploding pan at the moment it decided to burst.
But as I said, there just wasn't enough room in our small kitchen to clear the explosion - and that's what the glass pan did - it exploded outward. Bits of glass from the bottom of the pan had even cut their way into the meat I'd been cooking.
Now here's the thing - I cleaned up that glass - it wasn't hard to find - large jagged chunks of glass here and there and smaller shards all over the stove...but something was odd.
A pan has 4 sides and 1 bottom. Most of the bottom had been held down by the meat (or shot up into it). The sides all exploded outwards, leaving a clear trail of shrapnal and shards along the way. But the side facing me was just ... gone.
There simply wasn't enough glass.
The entire side that was facing me, the side that should have exploded outward from the edge of the stove, just wasn't anywhere to be found. It wasn't on the floor in front of me. It wasn't around or behind me. It just wasn't there. I still haven't found it, and believe me, I looked for it (mostly out of confusion).
It took me a little while to process what had happened. Not only did the Lord instruct me to move back (so I wouldn't be hit with scalding meat juices?), He made that glass which I couldn't avoid just not exist.
The only thing I did hear was my own voice in my head saying "When God is on your mind, He's by your side - even in your kitchen."
---
Many times I will hear unbelievers say they don't believe in God because they have never "experienced" Him. They can't point to any event in thier lives as a miracle. But as I cleaned that glass up off my stove and counter and floor and I took note of the bits that weren't there to be cleaned, I wondered how many miracles went unthanked and un-noticed. How many people miss out on feeling loved by the Father because they demote His mercies and blessings to the level of "spooky coincidence" ?
The Bible teaches us that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor 2:14, emphasis mine).
I was already busy enough to use the wrong kind of pan to broil dinner.
I believe, had I not been thinking of God...about being thankful at how well my troubles with the washer and truck had turned out...that I would have been too busy to listen to that tiny nudge that made me step backwards three feet for no reason.
So I thank God for this experience and I hope others are enriched for me sharing it. And now I'm off to walmart to buy an "official" broiler pan
I like to consider myself a decent cook, but now and then I get into a hurry. With the week we'd had, this was one such a night. I was making a meal for myself and my husband but the pan I normally used wasn't clean.
I had a smaller pan which I *thought* was tempered glass. I tossed a couple of steaks into it and put it under the broiler.
When the steaks were done, I sat the pan on the stove burner, which was covered with a thick cloth potholder. I was standing right in front of the pan when I set it down.
The rest happened in one instant moment:
I didn't hear the words "back up" or "look out."
There was no dramatic sense of danger and I certainly wasn't pushed away by any unseen but palpable force.
But I *know* God said "move" and I *know* my spirit obeyed. I found myself standing back a good three feet (still not really far enough for safety but any further would have put me out the balcony window). I wasn't sure why I moved and didn't consciously decide to jump backwards. When the pan exploded I said "OH!" -- not because I was startled by the explosion, but because I realized *that* was why I had moved away.
My husband heard my yelp and asked if I was alright ... and I said "Well yes...but I kinda exploded dinner."
We left the steaming pile of meat and glass to cool and ordered pizza....
----
It's enough of a miracle that I was inspired to step away from the exploding pan at the moment it decided to burst.
But as I said, there just wasn't enough room in our small kitchen to clear the explosion - and that's what the glass pan did - it exploded outward. Bits of glass from the bottom of the pan had even cut their way into the meat I'd been cooking.
Now here's the thing - I cleaned up that glass - it wasn't hard to find - large jagged chunks of glass here and there and smaller shards all over the stove...but something was odd.
A pan has 4 sides and 1 bottom. Most of the bottom had been held down by the meat (or shot up into it). The sides all exploded outwards, leaving a clear trail of shrapnal and shards along the way. But the side facing me was just ... gone.
There simply wasn't enough glass.
The entire side that was facing me, the side that should have exploded outward from the edge of the stove, just wasn't anywhere to be found. It wasn't on the floor in front of me. It wasn't around or behind me. It just wasn't there. I still haven't found it, and believe me, I looked for it (mostly out of confusion).
It took me a little while to process what had happened. Not only did the Lord instruct me to move back (so I wouldn't be hit with scalding meat juices?), He made that glass which I couldn't avoid just not exist.
The only thing I did hear was my own voice in my head saying "When God is on your mind, He's by your side - even in your kitchen."
---
Many times I will hear unbelievers say they don't believe in God because they have never "experienced" Him. They can't point to any event in thier lives as a miracle. But as I cleaned that glass up off my stove and counter and floor and I took note of the bits that weren't there to be cleaned, I wondered how many miracles went unthanked and un-noticed. How many people miss out on feeling loved by the Father because they demote His mercies and blessings to the level of "spooky coincidence" ?
The Bible teaches us that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor 2:14, emphasis mine).
I was already busy enough to use the wrong kind of pan to broil dinner.
I believe, had I not been thinking of God...about being thankful at how well my troubles with the washer and truck had turned out...that I would have been too busy to listen to that tiny nudge that made me step backwards three feet for no reason.
So I thank God for this experience and I hope others are enriched for me sharing it. And now I'm off to walmart to buy an "official" broiler pan
