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A hurricane of perplexing questions swirled in my mind in what could not have been but a fraction of a second: How can I help the more or less defenseless man? If I get out to assist, will the vicious dog merely have two victims instead of only one? I decided to pull into the driveway next to where the episode was occurring and offer the man my car as a safe haven. This I did in a matter of a very few seconds and screamed to the man, “Quick! Get in the car!” only to have the man stop, place his hands on his hips and ask, “Why?”

I replied, “Because the dog is going to chew you alive!”

At that moment the pit bull sauntered over to the man’s feet and sat on the grass panting. “Oh, he’s not gonna hurt me. He’s my buddy. This is how we play.”

This scenario, for all its appearance, had no similarity to my imaginative inference.

Seeing is not always believing!

On today’s date of June 19, in 1819, a much greater misguided event took place on the high seas. The SS Savannah was sailing just off the southeast coast of Ireland close to the Cape Clear when a vigilant lighthouse operator espied billows of flames and smoke from the ship and alerted the proper authorities. Immediately, the HMS Kite, which was designed for just such emergencies, launched a rescue mission to overtake the Savannah and save the crew. Though designed for speed, the Kite, after three hours of racing, failed to close any of the gap between herself and the Savannah, and, fearing the crew had lost control of their own ship, fired a warning.

As it turned out, the Savannah was not just another sailing ship. She was the first ship fitted not only with sails but also a steam engine and paddle wheels, and her crew had employed all the available propulsion in their resolve to break the record for traversing the Atlantic.

Again, things are not always as they first appear.

The two episodes caused me recall Biblical stories of how we humans oftentimes misconceive God’s doors of opportunities as failures.

Who could have guessed that when Joseph’s brothers sold him as a slave into a foreign land that in the distant future God would use him to save his family and many others from starvation?

And when Samuel was led by the Lord to anoint a king for the Children of Israel, even he was confounded that the Lord had a little shepherd boy, David, in mind.

Can you imagine the state of perplexity that the two disciples on the road to Emmaus must have experienced when they discovered that the one with whom they had been traveling was none other than the risen Lord Himself?

The eternal truths of God’s ways of dealing with humans are all true: God’s temporal order is not the same as our timing; the Lord works in mysterious ways; and “Wait, I say. Wait upon the Lord!”

From my childhood’s church attendance I recall the sermon illustration of a shipwreck survivor struggling to endure with his minimal amounts of resources. After struggling for months, he finally could construct a dwelling of sorts from palm branches and bamboo sticks. But while away gathering fruits, roots and other means of sustenance, he witnessed a rise of smoke coming from the location of his makeshift cabin. Racing back, he arrived too late to save any of the few possessions and began to scream at God as to why in all his striving God had allowed what few goods he had to be destroyed.

About that moment a skiff with sailors landed on the beach saying, “We spied your smoke signal from afar. That was a great idea!”

Often times the Lord takes our tragedy in order to make His triumph. We are the ones who must change our perspective.