“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.” Psalm 91:1
The traffic in Lincoln City, Newport, and Depoe Bay is formidable this time of year and the crosswalks are challenging because a person could grow old waiting for the flashing walk sign or not grow old at all trying to cross without one! Combine that with the influx thousands of drivers of various skills, it is a challenge to walk and drive on the coast on weekends at this time of year. 
As a sidelight, I heard that the reason the baseball teams were named what they were in LA was because the pedestrians there were either dodgers or angels. The analogy is theologically weak, but you get the point. It is not much different on the Oregon coast.
Yesterday Mom and I decided to cross the road and get a bite to eat in a restaurant. We pushed the walk button to cross the main road (45 mile an hour speed limit) and waited and waited. We had go through two crosswalks to get to the restaurant that was catty-corner to us anyway, so hunger drove us to cross the less busy road in spite of the flashing wait sign. There was no danger because… well, it is too hard to explain, but believe me, there was no danger. So we got to the other side and waited to cross the busy road once more. Finally we got the okay from a friendly flashing light and crossed. All of 
a sudden we heard a huge noise and I looked over and a large truck had lost its load of metal pipes at the intersection. When he stopped, all the pipes (and there was a bunch of them) shot off his rack, over the hood, through the crosswalk and into the intersection. They were big, heavy, and sharp. If anyone would have been in the crosswalk, they would have been surely injured and maybe worse. An army of men piled out of the truck and started gathering up pipes. It dawned on me that had we waited we would have been in that crosswalk when everything took place.
We were okay and it did not spoil our appetites, but it really made us think. What part does God play in our daily lives when it comes to protecting us. When we are safe is He protecting us and when we are hurt, He is not? 
Why does one person die in an accident and another survives? Why is one prayer seemingly answered and another seems to sit dormant for years. What’s going on here? Do we live on God’s roulette wheel of happenings and once in while we just get the black ball in the right or wrong slot?
We live in an unstable world populated by unstable people governed by an unstable, rebellious angel. There is a popular cliché that says “The safest place is in the center of God’s will.” However, does that mean when something bad happens we are outside of God’s will or if we seem to be protected we are obviously in God’s will. The Word (and experience) seems to say otherwise. Was Paul not in the center of God’s will when he was stoned, beaten, and imprisoned? Do missionaries suffer and Christian martyrs around the world shed their blood because they are out of God’s will? Or what about the reprobate who seems to enjoy God’s protection for a time- is that person in God’s will? What, then, is the need to be in God’s will if suffering and protection seem to be so random.
Well, because it is not random from God’s viewpoint and that is the viewpoint that counts. One my favorite passages on this subject is found in Daniel 3:16-18: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”
Basically, these three men of God said, “God can deliver us and if that is part of His plan, okay. But if he does not deliver us, it doesn’t change anything. He is still God.” I believe there are things that will happen because they must happen and there are things that can change because they can change. I believe there are things that may go one way if we neglect our prayer and another way if we do pray. I believe that God has possible scenarios that will play out depending on our prayer life, people involved, His sovereign will, and our free will. Do I believe that, as the above Psalms verse states, we were sheltered by God yesterday. 
Yes, but the incident and its outcome did not determine the sheltering. If we remain close to Him He will protect us regardless of what happens to us. His protection is beyond what we can see. We are limited to seeing today, seeing our own lives, and cannot see the entire scope of humanity like God can. Is God God because He did not allow a pipe to hurt us yesterday? No, God is God because He is God regardless of our situations.
God’s umbrella of protection is over us if we are in Him, but sometimes we have to share 
it with others and sometimes we may even have to give it to someone else because they need it more. I may have to step out in the weather so someone else can be brought to where he or she needs to be. God knows and I don’t. I just need to trust that He will do what I would do if I had the mind of God. Remember, when we step into eternity and have so much more knowledge, we will never look at God and say, “I don’t think I would have done it that way.” I think we will probably say something like, “Well done, good and faithful Master,” and shake our heads in amazement at His wisdom.
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