We hope you enjoy today’s Miracle Monday, submitted by Sister Patty Ignagni Machnik, which describes how God protects us even when we are not aware of it. (This experience connects strongly to last week’s Miracle Monday — not planned!)

Sometimes God answers our prayers even before we know we need to pray.

On the morning of June 26, 2020, I arose, prayed, and then walked into the kitchen to make some tea. I have a large electric kettle in which I boil water. Every morning, I pop open the top to empty the water from the prior day. If it’s a small amount, I discard the water, but if there is quite a bit, then I use it to water my plants. I don’t really look inside the kettle except every month or so when I descale it.

But, on this day, I popped the top and I noticed something in the kettle. It was a large oleander leaf. Now, I remembered that oleanders are poisonous, but I didn’t know which parts. I removed the leaf, dumped the water, refilled the kettle, and while it was heating, I looked up oleanders. Well, every part of the oleander is poisonous — the flowers, the leaves, the stems, and the stalks, no matter if alive or dried. Some of the symptoms of poisoning are blurry vision, vomiting, diarrhea, low blood pressure (which causes heart failure), confusion, and lastly death. So, I want to thank God for sparing my life!

But this blessing continues. I was a little shaken when I read this, so I went back into the kitchen and thought to myself, maybe I should do a more thorough cleaning of the kettle, which had finished boiling the water. I popped the top and put in dish soap and didn’t close the top. I started swirling the water and managed to swirl the boiled water over my entire right hand. My hand was not harmed in any way, not red, not scalded, nothing. Praise God again!

Lastly, I’m sure you are all wondering how an oleander leaf got into my kettle. I wondered that myself. I do have two oleander bushes that I’ve grown for more than 30 years. I bring them into the house when the weather cools and take them back outdoors when it warms. All that I could come up with was that when I sometimes water my plants with excess water from the prior day, especially when I water the oleanders, I don’t want to wait for the water to all pour out of the spout, but I pop the top so that more water flows. When I do this, it is possible that a leaf fell in and I didn’t notice.

But the most amazing thing about this is that I took my oleanders outside over Memorial Day weekend, so if my idea is correct, that leaf has been in my kettle for three weeks! I have been making oleander tea for myself all that time. Not only for myself, but Frank sometimes uses my excess water, and lastly, when our 21-month-old granddaughter visited, she would ask for Nonna’s tea and drink several teaspoons every day. During this entire time, no one has fallen ill or has been harmed in any way.

I cannot thank God enough for His protection for us all. His goodness and mercy never leave us. How GREAT is our God!

“Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth.” (Isaiah 12:5)

This article has undergone ministry review and approval.