"He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone."--Psalm 91:11-12
In my continuing series on mysterious events that dramatically affect our lives that I refer to as GodNods, Bud Hanks of Fayetteville can cite at least four events attributed to divine intervention over a lifetime.
"My mother had two operations on her ovaries and only had a partial left," he told me. "She got pregnant with me and I was approaching my 11th month in the womb. The doctor said she was dying and Dad had to choose the baby or his wife. He told the doctor they could have more children and to abort the baby.
"The doctor got two orderlies who held the doctor up as he placed his feet on the corners of the delivery table. He inserted the long forceps and pulled. The forceps caught me in the corner of my eye and the back of my soft head as he pulled me through hoping he didn't pull my head off. God saved me.
"My mother had to work my skull daily for four months to try and fix my damaged skull. No neck muscles were damaged and I didn't lose vision."
At 16 while riding his motorcycle along with two friends, Bud started across a new bridge at his hometown while doing 65. The metal grates had not been filled with concrete, and the holes were big enough to put his arm through.
"As we started down the far side of the grates, the rider behind me tried to slice between my bike and the rider next to me. Our handlebars caught and I was thrown into the air.
"My mind flashed to my junior-high tumbling class and I threw my arms and hands out in front of me, and came down doing a handstand on concrete, only inches from the grate on the other side of the river. Had I landed on the metal, it would have ripped my arms off and killed me.
"When tumbling, I rolled left into the oncoming traffic, where a car was sliding to a stop and began rolling up on my chest as my body went under the car. It stopped and rocked backwards off of me. I jumped up, ran to my motorcycle and jerked the bike free, then rode home.
"I wore no helmet or gloves, only a T-shirt, light nylon windbreaker and engineer boots. My hands thankfully only had first-skin-layer cuts, the back of the windbreaker was shredded, but the T-shirt was fine. My boots had their soles and heels torn off. There were no injuries to any other part of my body, except for my left elbow, which was bleeding. God saved me."
In another GodNod, Bud said he'd never "really accepted signs from Christ, until I was near the end of my law enforcement career and I felt hatred for some people I used to work for. So much so, I had planned some unspeakable things. My son and I were talking about it one day, and he said: 'Dad, you need to go to communion and don't take it or leave the rail until you know Christ is there with you.'
"The next Sunday I went to church and to the kneeling rail for communion. I was numb in thought. Everyone came and went. But I remained. The pastor continued with the service.
"Suddenly, I was washed over with a peace beyond all understanding. A quiet voice said 'Forgive.' There was no one near me. I motioned to the pastor and he gave me communion, then I returned to my seat. I will only again know that peace when I die.
Bud's fourth God Nod: "I was on patrol in 1965 as a new deputy for the Riverside County Sheriff's office in California when responding to what was supposed to be a suicide.
"The front door was locked, so I went to an unlocked side door. Entering what looked like a kitchen with cabinets to my left , I searched for a body along the floor when I felt a gun touch my left temple. A voice said,'What are you doing in my house?' I said I'm responding to a suicide call.
"The man said 'there hasn't been one yet,' as he pulled the trigger. The gun didn't go off. I hurried out of the house.
"We eventually had the man surrender and turn over his unfired gun. The weapon was test fired in a drum with the shell in its chamber that fired. God saved me."
Saving her daughter
Mary Seitz shared this GodNod: "Our daughter was seriously ill in the hospital, with no strength to walk, unable to keep food down, and we had no diagnosis. I had been staying with her and decided this particular night to go home, clean up and have a good night's sleep. We had been visited by a young physician earlier that day who was asked to simply consult on the case.
"He suggested there was a 25 percent chance she had Addison's disease. I read about it and realized if there was a total absence of adrenaline when the glands shut down completely, death would occur. Since the doctor was called in as a consultant, his notes would probably not be seen by the staff.
"I went home, and at 2 a.m. a voice very clearly said to me, 'You must go.' I went to the hospital and found our daughter asleep."
Her next awareness was of the sound of someone falling in the bathroom. Her daughter had collapsed and wasn't breathing. "I convinced the doctor to go ahead and treat her for Addison's even though he had a definitive test scheduled for the next day which would have required a full 24 hours for results.
"A week later he told me she had been in the process of experiencing Addison's crisis, and she would have died if I hadn't shared my observations with him. She is 46 years old today with two beautiful children, and is a stock broker in Little Rock. Definitely a GodNod!"
Angelic intervention
Reader Johnny Prescott shared the following: "At 56 I've have had several GodNods. The most memorable came when I was 28 and driving an hour to college in Arkadelphia for my first class at 8 a.m. I would leave at 2 p.m. to drive an hour to work the 3 to 11 p.m. shift at a steel mill. Then it was 27 miles back home.
"One night I left work after having stayed up for 36 hours straight. Halfway home I started up a mile-long straight stretch.
"On the right side was a fence and open pasture. To the left were large pine trees. After crossing a bridge, I was halfway up the straight section when I fell asleep. I awoke in the ditch doing 50 with pine limbs whipping the windshield and those big pines only feet from my driver door."
Easing back onto the highway, Johnny stopped, got out, and wondered why he was alive. "This is where the GodNod comes in. My name is Johnny Mack, which is mostly what everyone calls me. The only reason I woke up was someone hollered my name. It wasn't John or Johnny. It was Johnny Mack. I remember this so clearly.
"The voice that awakened me was a woman's. My father's mother died when I was very young, and the last thing my grandmother told me was, 'Don't forget, Johnny Mack, I love you.' To this day I believe God allowed her to intervene at that moment."
Mysterious saving hand
Louis Robles of Harrison tells me of the time as a child when he was swimming and began to flounder, quickly sinking as he struggled in vain to return to the surface.
"I was gurgling and thrashing, believing I wouldn't survive, when suddenly a hand grabbed me by the hair and literally pulled me back to the surface. But afterwards I realized no one was around to have saved me."
He told me that lifesaving mystery of the unknown saving hand could only have been a GodNod.
Have your own GodNod experience to share? Please send it along during this troubled period when we all can use abundant evidence of the higher power's influence in our lives.
Now go out into the world and treat everyone you meet exactly like you want them to treat you.
Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.