"For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone" (Ps. 91:11, 12). This Scripture was proved vividly true to me a number of years ago when I was serving as an interceptor pilot with the United States Air Force in Europe.
On a particular day, I was piloting one aircraft, and an instructor pilot was flying a second, "chase" aircraft, evaluating my performance. After initiating a climb from low altitude, I was aware of an explosion in my aircraft, followed by a violent tendency of the plane to dive earthward. A flash of fire was confirmed by the instructor. Confident of divine Mind's ever-present, harmonious control, I was able to correct the nose-down tendency, though the aircraft's power was now insufficient to maintain altitude. The instructor reported a gaping hole in my aircraft's fuselage, but no fire after the initial flash.
It was necessary to descend through a thick, solid undercast, which extended down to within a few hundred feet of the ground. Radar assistance personnel on the ground informed me that they were unable to locate me with their equipment. So, using an instrument of doubtful reliability, but still confident of divine Mind's perfect guidance and complete, unerring government, I was led to delay lowering the landing gear until the runway came into view—only seconds before landing. It was clear the aircraft would not have made it to the runway had I flown the published approach to the base. As soon as I had landed, the engine no longer responded to the throttle.
