Mighty to...

Contributed by Melissa Howell, pastor's wife and Mommy of two boys. 


The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

Last week I smashed the window of my car with my own fist. Well, with my own
fist…and a rock. My baby was trapped inside the car, you see – it was kind of a freak thing that happened. The two of us were driving home from church and the poor little guy was screaming his head off. I turned on music, drove fast, reached back and patted him, but nothing would soothe him so I finally just pulled the car over.


As I stepped out of the car, closed my door and reached for his, the automatic locks of my very smart car suddenly flashed and locked on me –with all doors closed, and my keys and cell phone inside. There’s a feature on my car that’s
NOT supposed to allow this, but there I was – in a church dress and heels, stranded on the side of the road, with my desperate, screaming baby trapped inside the car.


I tried all the doors. I tried the windows. I tried to flag someone down to use a phone but then became afraid of what type of person might stop for me in a dress and heels.

Then something came over me – I can’t explain it really – call it Mom-instinct? Fear? I decided I had to do whatever it took to get my panicking baby out of that car. Without hardly even thinking (maybe that was the problem), as if I was temporarily without reason, I picked up a rock and began frantically pounding on my own car windows. It took 6 or 7 hard hits before the glass made a terrible popping sound and then shattered, and I found my hand inside the car, glass imbedded, and bleeding profusely.


Instantly I picked up my sobbing child, wrapped his shaking little body in my arms, and sang to him until he was quiet.


Someday, when he asks me about the strange scars on my left hand, I will tell him this story.

I haven’t always understood what the Bible meant when it calls God “mighty to save,” but I did that day. I felt pretty mighty breaking a car window and rescuing my baby, but think of God’s might – He is able to save us from ANYTHING: He breaks through our struggles, our habits, our depression, our pride, even the separation of sin itself.


What’s more, He is mighty enough to save our children, which I sometimes find myself wanting even more than my own salvation. He is mighty enough to break through their walls and their stubbornness and even the parts of them that are so very much just like…us.

It’s not hard to be saved – God makes it happen! He is mighty! Even as we cry and scream in anger, He is already on the way to help. And when He gets to us, there won’t be scolding or head-shaking – look above. He will not only quiet you with His love, but He will actually rejoice over you with singing. He cheers for you! He celebrates and delights in you!


And He will do whatever it takes to save you – just think of His own scarred hands.