"But for the grace of God....”

How many times have you been watching TV news and they interview someone who almost died -- in a car wreck or bus crash or gun shot or fall or some “act of God” like a flood, tornado, etc., -- and the person gives thanks to God or Jesus? Some times the person has lost a limb or an eye or a loved one but survived, just barely. Yet no matter how horrific the event, still the survivor will inevitably utter those famous 6 words; “But for the grace of God...” and then go on to say how if the bullet had just been 1 worm’s hair to the right or the rescuer a teeny-tiny bit slower to pull him/her out of the rubble of the double-wide, they would have died. And this means God or Jesus was “there” for them. Whenever I hear somebody say this phrase or the other one about how God must have a “reason” and a purpose for them and that’s why He saved his/her life, I just laugh. I can’t help it. I giggle. And no matter how many times I hear some one say it, it’s just as funny as the first time I heard it.

I just love that joke.

I mean, it’s got to be joke, right? Who would actually be crazy enough or dumb enough to say thank you to a person who just stood by and watched them get their legs ripped off or their best friend carried away in a flood or worse? Hell, in Texas they not only don't think it's funny. They think sitting and watching a crime go down is just as bad as doing it. In fact, they send you to Death Row for that kind of thing. But I digress.

Back to the God-spared-me joke. I think it is especially funny when people praise God after a calamity, when you stop to consider the fact these same people think God is all powerful and thus could have prevented the whole thing from happening at all. Yet they are grateful. Loony. It’s like that guy who said “I’m sorry” to Cheney for getting shot in the face by Cheney. Hilarious but loony.

I mean, if God was really looking out for the person wouldn’t ol’ Yahweh have just made that pickup truck swerve instead of plowing into the car head-on and taking out half the family, thereby leaving only one survivor to say, “thanks, God”? Seems like averting the accident entirely would have been a whole lot more miraculous, not to mention better for the family. Makes no sense. But then, I think well, maybe the speaker thinks God is like a redneck Nascar fan -- he just likes watching a good car wreck now and then. And who can blame God for that? Ha.

Oh, God you DO have a sense of humor. Don’t you?

And just to show you how funny He is, look at all these web sites He has allowed to be created:

http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/Humor.html
http://www.yo-god.com/
http://www.yo-god.com/faq.htm
http://www.landoverbaptist.org/
http://jesusoftheweek.com/jesii/458/index.html
http://www.freethunk.net/freethought.htm
http://groups.msn.com/AtheistVSGod/_homepage.msnw?pgmarket=en-us

Praise Jesus!