Echoes of Light

This past weekend, while listening to worship music, one line struck me in a way it never had before:

*All my days, I’ve been held in Your hands.*

That moment opened my eyes to just how many times God has shielded me throughout my life.

When I was six, my sister and I heard whispered voices outside our bedroom window: *”Let’s wait until they sleep, then we’ll break in.”* Terror-stricken, we ran to our mother, who grabbed my dad’s rifle and rushed outside. Though the intruders vanished, their footprints remained.

Not long after, I was introduced to a “game” by my sister’s stepbrothers—one that crossed innocent boundaries. When I protested, my mother dismissed it. It could have been worse, but even then, God’s protection was there.

Throughout my childhood, danger seemed to lurk at every corner—men following me on my walk home, strangers in a laundromat trying to lure me into a van, an adult persistently coaxing me to sit beside him late at night.

As an adult, there were moments when I came close to tragedy. A serial rapist had struck three times in my city, and one morning, I spotted a man staring at me from the house next door. When he began to climb the fence, he heard my husband at our garage. That small noise from my husband saved me. That same day, the rapist was captured.

Another night, after my belly dance class, I saw a man watching us from the shadows. No one else noticed. The next day, a rapist was caught—his face the same as the one I saw.

The most recent moment of protection came on a nature walk. As the ranger described the indigenous people of the area, a man struck up conversation with me, fixating on the phallic shapes of the rocks, claiming they made the hills sacred. I happened to glance ahead—my husband and the group were nearly out of sight. Alarmed, I called out to him and hurried forward.

There were countless close calls, moments when a single misstep could have changed everything. But each time, God stood between me and harm. I realize now—these weren’t coincidences. They were proof that all my days, I have been held in His hands.

i hope this gives you the courage to ponder your past, and see if you can find similar moments of Protection, no matter how small.