"In my distress I called to the Lord; " Psalm 18:6 NIV

The young man was quietly waiting upon certain death to take him in a moment or two as the small plane flew on through the snowstorm. Whether or not the pilot had turned on the defrost soon enough earlier mattered little now as the wipers could no longer remove the snow now that continued to blanket the airplane's windshield. He knew in his heart there would be very little chance for a safe landing now.

As he sit there awaiting the end, he thought of the deaths of his mother and brother and of how hard life had been those first few years without them. His father had abandoned the family long before that time, but he thought of him too.

He had seen snow once before when he was very young, but he could not see it now as he was blind and had been so since the age of seven. He knew they were flying VFR and the tone of the pilot's voice was all he needed to hear to understand that they were in dire straits. He quietly prayed for a miracle.

As he was thinking back to those early times of no money and of not eating for days at a time when he was trying to get a start for himself in his chosen profession, he heard the pilot exclaim that a small hole was beginning to open up on the frosted and snow-covered windshield and that he was starting to see the ground.

When relief began to rush through his entire being, Ray knew it was the hand of God who had cleared that frozen windshield that enabled them to land safely instead crashing into the earth. Although Ray Charles had a "Georgia" foremost on his mind days earlier, he would never forget that "someone who instruments cannot detect" had divinely interceded and saved them that day at Oklahoma City.

He did not go on to live the best of lives after that second chance, nor did he set the best of examples for others, but Ray Charles did continue to bring a certain pleasure to those millions of ordinary people who listened to his songs on the radio, and that accounts for something.

Rik Charbonneaux is a retired NE Iowan who loves all of God's Word and all of His creatures.