The following incident is reported to have been published by Associated Press a while back:

In Arkansas, a lady named Linda went to visit her in-laws, and while there, went to a store. She parked next to a car with a woman sitting in it, her eyes closed and hands behind her head, apparently sleeping. When Linda came out a while later, she again saw the woman, her hands still behind her head but with her eyes open. The woman looked very strange, so Linda tapped on the window and said “Are you okay?” The woman answered “I’ve been shot in the head, and I am holding my brain in.”

Linda did not know what to do, so she ran into the store, where store officials called the paramedics. They had to break into the car because the door was locked. When they got in, they found that the woman had bread dough on the back of her head and in her hands. A Pillsbury biscuit canister had exploded, apparently from the heat in the car, making a loud explosion like that of a gunshot, and hit her in the head. When she reached back to find what it was, she felt the dough and thought it was her brain. She passed out from fright at first, then attempted to hold her brains in.

They took her to a local hospital, where they treated her, shampooed her hair, and released her.

Sometimes things aren’t nearly as bad as they may seem at the time. Remember back during your dating days, when that special someone broke up with you, it seemed to be the end of the world. Life just wasn’t worth living anymore! But, in time, you came to realize it wasn’t the major disaster you initially thought it was.

I think we do that a lot as we grow up. I don’t mean to trivialize true tragedies we face, but often when things go wrong, our first reaction is to panic and think our world is coming to an end. When the spies returned from the land of Canaan and told about the “giants” they encountered, the Israelites’ reaction was, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!” (Numbers 14:2).

Only two spies took the attitude, “Our problem is big, but our God is bigger. Things aren’t nearly as bad as they seem.” “Do not be terrified, or afraid of them. The Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you….” (Deuteronomy 1:29-30)

Whatever problem you may be facing today, may you do so with the knowledge that however big it may be, our God is even bigger!

Alan Smith alansmith@boone.net www.TFTD-online.com