I’m still haunted by the near accident with the huge brush cutter. I’ve relived it dozens of times, growing ever more thankful that I still have the eight fingers with which I’d stupidly gripped the rim of the silently spinning blades’ housing. If the blades had been a quarter of an inch longer, my fingers would have been severed. If the spindle had been knocked off center by a similar amount, today I’d have no fingers. If the housing had been bent inward, the result would have been the same.
We’ve all had similar close calls. We can thank God for the reminders He kindly provides. Close calls with our bodily safety are, of course, analogies to the more serious results that may come from spiritual mistakes. Mortal sin does more than cut off our fingers, it cuts our souls off from He Who made them.
One may reasonably conclude that we have close calls and accidents to our minds and bodies to remind us of the far worse consequences that willful sin has to our souls. Each time we are near to something that may hurt our worldly entities, we may be reminded that we are also always close to falling into sin and the far more permanent suffering that will cause.
