I Almost Got Killed — Dave Collins
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Remembering my life in the past and my life today, I stand amazed not only that this little boy survived multiple near-death experiences but that to this day this body still functions well. I have seen and experienced unbelievable beauty and adventure and after multiple years of such fullness still have the physical capacity to participate with younger men in life’s adventures.
There is ample evidence that God has walked with me through it all. He has protected me and saved me from death many times. In elementary school I was a tree climber. I fell from the top of a tall tree but was caught on a limb far below before hitting the ground. One day while riding home on my bicycle in a storm, a lightning flash hit the road only a few feet from me. Another time lightning hit the dock on which I was standing only a few feet above my head. The flash of light was so strong I lost sight of everything around me, and friends who were in a nearby cabin were scared I might have been killed. Later in life, I was making repairs to the top of the attic in our house, when my ladder broke. I fell backwards and went between the rafters to land flat on my back on the concrete floor of the garage. My head never hit the concrete, because it hit a small plastic garbage can that broke the fall. Once I was Costa Rica helping build a climbing wall when another helper two stories above me dropped a crowbar. I was bent over on the ground picking up trash when I felt the crowbar fall past my ear and saw it hit the ground below my head. One inch to the left….and I would be dead. Believe it or not, there are other examples I could give of near-death experiences in my life.
There is ample evidence that God has walked with me and protected me throughout my life. He has had a purpose to fulfill throughout my life, and He has used me to touch other lives after these episodes. Even as I age, I know God keeps me going and says there is value in each day that passes. I follow His lead with joy knowing that I am in His hands. As his children, we are blessed and have every reason to thank God through good and hard experiences.
Psalms 139:14-17 expresses my thankfulness:
“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.”
-Dave Collins
