My Shomer/Guardian

The fallen bull pine, viewed from the back of our barn, after Jon, our neighbor, had sawed off the limbs & part of the trunk.


God is my Guardian! Twice this week I have seen how God is constantly watching over me to protect both me & my property. "Shomer" is the Hebrew for guardian & shows up in verses like Psalm 121:3-8. "ADONAI will guard you against all harm; He will guard your life. ADONAI will guard your coming & going from now on & forever."

Our neighbors to the south have a very tall, but very dead, bull pine tree close to our fenceline. We have been afraid for almost two years that it would blow over in one of our strong windstorms. Its location gives it a 50% chance of taking out our electric fencing & about a 20% chance of hitting our garage/barn. This time of year, our horse & sheep hang out around the back of that barn because that is where they are protected from the wind & also where we feed them twice a day. If the tree fell toward the barn, it would most likely fall on one or more of our animals as well. We had mentioned to the neighbors that it would be wise to cut the tree down before it fell of its own accord. That way one could control the direction of its fall. Our neighbors had finally decided to cut it down this Spring. Friday night one of those horrendous windstorms hit our area. It spread pieces of branches & dead pine needles all over our lane & front lawn. It also snapped that tree. God had it fall parallel to our fenceline, where it didn't hit a thing. Jon, our neighbor, was out with his chainsaw yesterday. As he chopped limbs off the tree for firewood & began to also saw up part of the trunk, I told him how thankful we were that God had protected our property. Jon said he had been up on his roof Saturday morning straightening & repositioning his TV antenna. He happened to glance our direction & noticed the tree stump. He couldn't see much else for the rest of the trees in between. He got weak-knees & almost fell from the roof in his dismay that the tree might have damaged our fence, barn or animals. Jon sent up a quick prayer & scrambled down to walk over & get a better look. He was so relieved, that he shared God's wondrous sovereign protection as a praise on Sunday morning.

Yesterday the thought, " I really need to change my oil," kept running through my mind. Have you had an obsessive thought like that? "I really must change my oil today." I can easily push something like that to the back of my mind & agenda. It was one of those sunny, blue sky days that just begged you to come out & soak in some Vit. D. I finally obeyed the urge. Chris, the owner of the Lube station that I frequent about every three months, came to the waiting area about ten minutes after I had surrendered my keys & Yukon. He said the seals on my front axle were leaking & hardly any fluid was left. He advised that I get this repaired quickly, as I could end up losing my ability to steer my car at an inopportune time. Finding out that he could do the repair & that my budget would allow it, I told him to go ahead. His daughter drove me to the athletic club so I could swim my half-mile while he worked on the Yukon. Megan returned to pick me up a couple hours later. Chris guided me over to where the Yukon was still up on the rack. "You are one fortunate woman," he said. "See how the inner parts of both your front tires are worn down to the core, whereas the rest of the tread looks almost new? That clued me in that your seals were the least of your problems. See how the Pitman arm & Idler arm are worn & extremely loose? Have you had any steering problems?" I had not noticed any problems, but could see what he was showing me. Evidently, God has protected me from a sudden cessation of any control of the Yukon via the steering wheel. The obsessive thoughts were His way of drawing my attention to an accident waiting to happen.