A COURSE IN MIRACLES

KELLY RAE ROBERTS

I asked my husband once, if he had a theme song. My husband drives professionally and stress and anxiety come with the territory. But in my husband’s case, a lot of “unexplained” stuff happens. So I asked if he had a favorite hymn that he could sing or whistle, or have his “brain loop” in times of stress. I have a hymn for him: Lead Kindly Light.
So last month my husband P had an accident (non-vehicular) where he slipped and fell, bumped his head, passed out, eyes rolled back in his head, and lay there for roughly 15 min. (I posted on this, 3 witness saw him, but did not come to his aid or call 911). So after lying there, he got up and drove off in his big truck. A few minutes later, another man came into the store and fell and injured himself badly. I figured that my husband was the Good Samaritan but he was early. Now the lingering side effects of this fall are less frequent headaches. 

Almost 2 years ago, P was driving through a tunnel, and a minivan circa 1970’s crashed or rather propelled itself unto the back of his big rig. He said that the force of the crash was so intense that the passenger’s side of the minivan was sheared off. The back doors of the driver’s side literally blew off, the tires blew off. Seriously, and what was left was the sheared off driver’s side that was literally flipping and spinning in front of him. He said it looked like a NASCAR accident. When the spinning object came to a halt, maybe 50 yards up road, he got out of his truck and started to run toward it, praying that no one was hurt or worse. When they got to the vehicle, they heard someone yelling for help. By then the tunnel police and another truck driver had made it to the scene. They pulled the guy out. P said he looked like a tall, skinny “Grateful Dead” groupie. He had long hair; long beard, maybe some substance on board, and really out of it, even before he hit the truck. Miraculously he was not hurt, just bumps and bruises.

So last night P was at the 7-11 picking up some lunch and he noticed a man staring at him. So he went over and said, “Do I know you?” (People stare at my husband all the time in public places. Dogs that are normally antisocial come up and lick his hands and give doggie kisses. Crying babies stop and he’s not always that “approachable”.) The man said, “Tunnel accident, 2 years ago”. (I can’t believe it’s been 2 years). P said that the man was cleaned up, no long hair or beard, eyes focused. Apparently P had told him at the scene of the accident that he should “get down on his knees and thank Heavenly Father for saving his life”. He took it seriously.
Around that same time (2 years ago) frame, at that same 7-11 a customer had an accident in the ladies room and had passed out. No one was helping her, and a friend of hers was hysterical, so my husband called 911, but to calm the friend down, he told her to check if her friend was still alive. That freaked her out, but he told her to touch her to see if she was breathing and warm. The friend freaked out and ran out of the store, so P had to check the lady out, and by the time the paramedics came she was moving. He saw those people last night too, they were still struggling and did not recognize him.
What does this mean? I don’t believe in coincidences, and for me there are none. My husband seems to be a “point of reference” for things waiting to be explained in his life. When P received his Patriarchal blessing, one blessing stood out, that he would reach those people who were considered unreachable, those who no one thought about. He would probably never receive a lot of thanks for his part, but that Heavenly Father would bless him for this. I feel like my husband is a “sheepherder”.
I wanted to find out about“miracles”and if they really happen. I found an excellent talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks called  Miracles: Elder Dallin H. Oaks . It is an excellent source for an explanation of how Heavenly Father works within our lives.I read this excerpt and this was my husband's experience:

Modern servants of the Lord have also felt impressed to describe miraculous events to strengthen the faith of believers. Many of these have been published. I have chosen to share some of these here.
A few years after the pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, a young man took an ox team up Millcreek Canyon on a cold winter day to get logs to build a house. It was extremely cold, and the snow was deep. His sled held five large logs. After he loaded the first one, he turned around to load another. In that instant, the log already on the sled—22 feet long and about 10 inches in diameter—slipped off the sled and rolled down on him, striking him in the hollow of his legs. He was thrown face-forward across the four logs still on the ground and pinned there, alone, with no way to extract himself. He knew he would freeze to death and die alone in the mountains.
The next thing this young pioneer remembered was waking up, sitting on a load of five logs nicely bound on his sled with his oxen pulling the load down the canyon. In his personal history he wrote, “Who it was that extricated me from under the log, loaded my sled, hitched my oxen to it, and placed me on it, I cannot say.” Thirty-three years later, that young pioneer, Marriner Wood Merrill, was ordained an Apostle.

So maybe miracle is too big of a word, maybe too sacred, but I feel that Heavenly Father working with P. Maybe because of the "fantastical" events that surround him are because of the people that are involved. Maybe they were praying about something, or someone was praying for them. How do we affect the lives of others? So the theme song for my husband is this  :

Lead Kindly Light
Lead, kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom, lead Thou me on!

The night is dark, and I am far from home; lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path; but now lead Thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years!

So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still will lead me on.
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till the night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile, which I
Have loved long since, and lost awhile!

Meantime, along the narrow rugged path, Thyself hast trod,
Lead, Savior, lead me home in childlike faith, home to my God.
To rest forever after earthly strife
In the calm light of everlasting life.

Perfect theme song for a truck driver!