Could You Walk the Green Mile?

I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie Green Mile, but it is a modern-day masterpiece. (at least as modern as a 21-year-old film can be). The story is about inmate John Coffey who is on death row, and about to be executed, for murder. I won’t spoil the story but HONESTLY, if you haven’t seen the film, I implore you to make it your next cuddle up, or hunker down (whichever is your preference😊), at home to watch and enjoy this flick. An adaptation of a story written by Stephen King, I know it does not sound like a positive film, and its impact does vary per person, event, and mood, but it is a cinematic classic that just has to be seen by anyone who loves great movies.

So, not to spoil the movie line, the following comments, are in no way related to the story in the Green Mile, it’s just that this great film made me think of other things in life worth exploring.

There are many in our society and culture who constantly say: “If there is a caring loving God, how can He allow some of the things that happen in this world?” People who make this statement don’t know God nor do they know Jesus or the Bible. Even so, many true believers often have these same thoughts and doubts from time-to-time, as Satan tries to influence us away from God. Us believers know that God gave all of mankind free-will and thus the evil in this world is due to this free-will, at Satan’s hands, and not of God’s making or will. It’s those who do not know of God’s free-will given to mankind that we need to help, support, and influence ….away from Satan…. and to God’s word.

I had a professor who once stressed – EVERY DAY – in class the following: “ALL Mankind is evil – it is the intelligent, educated, and true believer who does everything they can to counter this evil.” He actually would make us recite this every day. While the intent was to ingrain this in our minds, I’m not so sure, based on the fall in the garden of Eden, that he or this statement was wrong. Afterall, Heaven and the universe is God’s, and since the fall, the earthly or worldly culture and lives have been ruled by Satan. However, for those of us who fully believe and trust in God, Satan has no control or power. But we are week and fallen humans, which gives Satan far more power than we realize.

However, as is always the case, God is all knowing and all powerful, and because of our weakness and the fall, he sent His son Jesus to save us all. When Satan tempted Jesus and said bow down to me and I will give you this whole world to rule, Satan could have done it, but only if Jesus turned away from God and His fathers plans for him/Jesus. But as we know Jesus could not be tempted and rebuffed Satan. Thanks to this, and His eventual crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus delivered to us, and to God’s plan, a path/road from all of us to be saved, and to defeat Satan forever. Praise be to God!!!

So, where is God in today’s world? Why do so many “bad” things happen? Personally, I think one only needs to look into the details of nearly everything that occurs, and you can find God’s hand and His angels at work. Here are some examples:

My wife and I have been fans of the show Forensic Files; the original. This show depicts how forensics has solved many crimes, predominantly murders. I know this seems a bit gruesome or morbid but we began to notice, just a few shows in, that there was definitely some presence, we think God’s hand, that helped solved many, albeit I would say most, of these cases. Sure, the forensics played key roles but there were always some very uncommon and non-common-sense occurrences that ultimately solved the cases. Here’s an example:

A person was murdered by mutilation and their torso was stuffed into a freezer. The body was later found dumped alongside a road. The sheriffs believed they knew who did it but never could find enough evidence to convict. So, the evidence, including the freezer was stored away. Every year, for ten plus years, the evidence storage people reached out to this one sheriff asking if they could destroy this freezer which seemingly had no connection to the case nor the other “real” evidence. Every year, the sheriff in charge actually agreed with them and felt the freezer was not useful and was not needed…but…he kept getting a feeling in his gut not to destroy the freezer. Year after year this went on and year after year the sheriff stuck with his gut feeling. Finally, new analysis techniques were discovered and better DNA testing was developed and finally, the sheriff, on a whim, decided to re-test the freezer, and sure enough this time they found the victims DNA and other trace blood evidence, in this freezer that was owned and possessed at the time of the murder, by the chief suspect. 15 years after the murder, the suspect was convicted of murder one. I think this gut feeling or perseverance was God and/or his angels.

There are numerous other cases, depicted on this show, that were solved 5 years, 18 years, 20 years, 25 years, and even 40 years after the criminal acts, due to absolutely incredible and unfathomable strange things that occurred – Diatoms from a pond, a yellow sock, a fiber from a car trunk, different types of concrete, insect larva, botanical plant DNA, and types of wood. I think God’s angels have been busy.

September 11, 2001. We all know this day and if it doesn’t ring a bell, it is the day Osama Bin Laden’s people attacked the Twin Towers in New York city and the Pentagon in Washington DC. Four aircraft and the twin towers were destroyed. On a normal day with normal aircraft capacity, 732 people would have been killed, yet only 90 perished. At the pentagon and twin towers, the normal occupancy would have been roughly 6,500 people yet only 2,731 were lost. Now these people’s lives lost are still horrific and should never be deemed acceptable. But there are countless stories of people who just chose not to fly or go to work that day, and most of these people had unusual feelings, fears, ailments, and gut feelings, that told them to stay home. Another example how these odd feelings, likely from God, saved many lives. Yes, we all get odd feelings at times, and not all are from God, but this significant a number of people, on the same morning, at roughly the same times, seems to me to be far too many to pass off as coincidence. There is no doubt in my mind that god saved many on that day.

Germany and Japan were ravishing the world with their militaries during the early years of World War II. The United States, arguably the only country with the technology to stop these oppressors, refused to enter these conflicts. With nearly our entire fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese decided to annihilate our fleet by attacking and destroying the fleet, with a predominant focus on primarily our battleships and secondarily on our air craft carriers. On Sunday morning, December 7, 1041, they attacked and severely destroyed nearly every military resource we had, in the harbor. But, six of our battleships were not at Pearl Harbor, and three of our carriers were not in Pearl Harbor because they either had just left or not yet arrived on that morning. Also, one battleship, the Nevada, was in Pearl Harbor but actually survived the attack. Another example of what I believe was divine intervention, is that had the Japanese returned in their originally planned second wave of attacks, they would have dealt the US fleet the final death blow and sunken another few critical ships – but something told them to not launch their second attack.

Pearl Harbor would lead the US into this war, and in just one year, a year which saw incredible togetherness and dedication from the American people, we were able to build a significant enough military to defeat both Germany and Japan, in basically only 2-3 years’ time, and greatly minimize the death toll that would have occurred, freeing several countries and their citizens from this oppression.

Yes, there are still bad things that happen, at the hand of mankind exercising it’s free-will. God cannot step into every happening or we would not truly have free-will. We have to learn to trust and respect and through the many pains and struggles that occur, we best honor God, and ourselves, by remaining true and faithful to God. If we stay true through these struggles, we will eventually reap God’s great love, grace, and ultimate rewards.

Everyday there is a modern-day miracle occurring, one just has to open their eyes to see them. We all have heard countless stories where people have been saved by coincidence, people just happen to be in the right place at the right time. Disasters not being nearly as severe as they could have been. People waking up after years in a coma. A person who is rescued lost in the wilderness by a strange “Voice” or unusual circumstance. Orphans separated from their brothers and sisters for years only to be reunited. Crimes being solved through strange and unusual circumstances, and caring people just doing what God would want them to do, in trying and struggling situations. We are all walking the Green Mile through this life, and some of us will find the end of this walk sooner than others. So, we need to make sure that our companion, on our walk, is God and his son Jesus, because they both loves us, and wish to be with us. God is alive and well and his hands are everywhere, we just have to see and believe, and our walk will be to the greatest rewards of all.

For some additional stories on God’s great modern-day miracles, see the following resources:

From PureFlix Insider: https://insider.pureflix.com/prayer-faith/modern-day-miracles

From Guideposts: https://www.guideposts.org/inspiration/miracles/gods-grace/3-unexplained-present-day-miracles

From Beliefnet: https://www.beliefnet.com/inspiration/7-modern-miracles-that-science-cant-explain.aspx

From Compassion UK: https://www.compassionuk.org/blogs/modern-day-miracles/