I was finishing off the peak inside of a log home I was building. I was working alone installing tongue and groove knotty pine on the cathedral ceiling. The ceiling was all done except the very peak. To reach the peak I had erected three sets of scaffolding, each set being five feet high for a total of fifteen feet. On top of the scaffolding I placed two 2×10 planks and on these I set a step ladder. Not the safest way to do things, but I wasn’t concerned about it at the time. Looking back it was rather foolish.

As I installed the ceiling I would climb up the ladder and measure, and then come down, cut a piece of lumber and then climb back up the ladder and nail it in place. Then I would measure for the next piece and do it all over again.

I had worked my way about a third of the way across  when I go this funny feeling. I looked down and to my horror one of the 2×10’s had slid off the scaffolding. The plank was just touching one side of the round bar it was setting on. With all the moving I was doing on the ladder as I was working, it was not possible that the plank could set like that. If it had slipped off, I would have went flying head first 20+ feet to the floor. To make matters worse I would have hit a cross tie log on the way down.

Very carefully I climbed down the ladder and worked my way around the scaffolding to the plank. Slowly I went to take a hold of the plank. As soon as my hand passed under the plank it dropped into my hand. It hadn’t fell when I was on the ladder moving around or while I was climbing around the scaffolding, but it fell the instant my hand went under it. I did not touch or bump the plank. My hand was three or four inches below it when it suddenly dropped. I know there was an angel holding up that plank until my hand passed under it. In fact, I spoke at the time: “I know that there is an angel here and I thank you and I thank God that sent you”. I’m sure I could feel the presence of God or his angel, although it could have been the emotion at the time.

A pastor friend of ours, teenage son Tim, was in a very bad automobile accident. He was in a coma and not expected to live. The doctors said if he did live he would have severe brain damage. But God in His wonderful mercy healed him completely and today he is a pastor himself.

Tim was however in the hospital for quite some time. His parents spent every minute that was possible with him at the hospital. Eventually the day came when Tim was able to leave the hospital. But before he left he wanted to say goodbye to Mr. Smith.

“Who is Mr. Smith” his parents asked?

Tim replied, “he is an old man that always came and set with me when nobody else was there”

They asked at the nurses station about Mr. Smith. You probably already guessed, there was no Mr. Smith that worked or volunteered at the hospital. Just another example of one of God’s ministering spirits in the form of an old man.