Lucky Leap

It was a beautiful fall day in McLean County in western Kentucky. I had stayed home from high school to help my uncle Gene with the harvest. We started piling the wilted tobacco sticks to cure in the barn. Uncle Gene stayed in the wagon and I stood in the upper tiers of the barn while he passed the sticks to me.

About a third of the load was housed when Uncle Gene said, “Teddy, the wind is blowin’ a lot of dust up. You stay put while I go outside and close the doors.”

Usually I did just what Uncle Gene said. This time I did exactly the opposite—reacting instantly! I didn’t climb down the usual way. I simply let loose from the rafters and dropped to the wagon bed, then rolled over the tailgate onto the dirt floor.

There was a whoosh, then a great noise. I opened my eyes. I felt drops of rain and saw only sky above. Uncle Gene came running toward me, looking frightened.

The sides of the barn were gone. I could see all the way across the cornfields. About two hundred yards away lay what was left of the barn. The tier where I had stood was on the bottom of the pile. Later, when we cleaned up, I found my hat underneath the rubble. At the same second I had jumped, a tornado had spun out of the sky, sucked up the barn and smashed it into the field.

Sometimes God works in ways that are slow and steady. But at other times he reacts with split-second timing. I’m living proof of it.