A wild encounter

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I had just finished my matriculation and was chilling at my maternal house for the vacation. Back then, vacations were eagerly awaited events. But for our poor grandmother, it was like managing a circus—she had to handle all her grandkids and her three youngest kids, who were practically the same age as the grandkids!

Now, to all the kids out there, we owe you a huge apology for introducing you to the world of screens. Back in our day, free time meant creativity—pure, unfiltered chaos. We would dive into all sorts of unimaginable sports and play with properties borrowed from nature.

So, it was one of those days when we were a gang of about nine kids, all around the same age, running up and down with no real destination. That’s when an aunt suddenly screamed, “Runnnn!” I felt like I was caught in a stampede. She screamed again, “Run! It’s a wild boar!”

Now, I didn’t even know where this wild boar was, but at that moment, I knew one thing: I had to save my life. Everyone scrambled to run.

"This route is crowded! You'll be delayed in reaching a safe destination. Take left!” my GPS-like aunt instructed.

I didn’t think twice. I mean, left is always the right choice, right? I turned left, but then—whoosh—suddenly, my feet were above my head. In that moment, I couldn’t figure out who had launched me there. And before I could even process what happened, I found myself face-down in the sand.

From the sand, I could hear my family yelling, “Get up! Faster! Faster, faster, faster!” I struggled, somehow managing to pull my face out of the sand and tried to get up, but I couldn’t—there was a huge weight on top of me.

The shouting continued: “Get up! Run for your life!!” So, I took a deep breath, summoned my inner superhero, and boom, pushed the weight off me. I was free. I stood up and looked around, and guess what? No wild boar in sight.

“Where’s the boar?” I asked my mom, who was standing nearby. “It left,” she said, still in panic mode.

“Wait, who was on top of me, then?” I asked. And that’s when the mystery was solved. It was her. When I was airborne, she had run down the same distance and plunged over me to protect me, all while screaming, “Run!”

But why didn’t the boar harm me? It turns out that the boar, which was just trying to escape from humans, had its path blocked by me running ahead of it. When the boar threw me into the air, it seemed to hear a prayer whispered in its ear. It was my grandmother, pleading with folded hands, “Please spare her, she’s our only GIRL child.”

James 1:6 – “When you ask, you must believe and not doubt”.


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