Donald Trump – former president, candidate for president – was shot by a would-be assassin on July 13. While some minimize his survival, it is neither overstatement nor messianic to say his survival is miraculous, given the intent, range, and agility of the shooter. History foreshadows more.
None of us, however spiritual, can know God’s will, nor change it. Yet cynics, like those of faith, ought not to dismiss the patterns of life, history, and where miraculous events often lead.
For those with no inclination to history, miracles, faith, or divine intervention – no patience for those who see the Hand of Providence in American history – so be it. But history never stops teaching.
The lives of George Washington, Joshua Chamberlain, Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher, and countless others, … teach us lessons, not least about faith.
On July 9, 1755, 274 years ago this month, George Washington found himself under intense fire, Battle of Monongahela. At 23, he was not used to being shot at, became defiant, rallied hundreds, and survived two horses shot from under him, four shots through his coat. He should not have.
Without George Washington’s survival at Monongahela, and later facing down point blank attempts on his life at Long Island, Brooklyn Heights, Princeton, and Trenton, the Revolutionary War would likely have been lost, no President Washington, no young nation, no older nation… no now.
On July 2, 1863, 161 years ago this month, Joshua Chamberlain turned the flank of Lee’s troops at Gettysburg, 20th Maine, Battle of Little Round Top. More than once, face to face, he was confronted and shot at – but those shots miraculously missed or the guns misfired.
Without Joshua Chamberlain’s survival at Little Round Top, turning the line and tide at Gettysburg, that battle would have likely gone to Lee, no Union victory, no Gettysburg Address… no now.
On July 1, 1898, 126 years ago this month, Theodore Roosevelt (TR) stormed San Juan Hill in Cuba with his Rough Riders, helping to end the Spanish-American War. In the charge 144 died, not TR.
In 1912, having been president once, running again after Howard Taft’s failed term , TR was speaking at a rally in Milwaukee – when he was shot. The bullet penetrated his suit, hit a metal glasses case and papers ion his vest pocket. Wounded, he defied the would-be assassin, finished.
Without TR’s survival at San Juan, no President Theodore Roosevelt, no Nobel Prize for ending the Russo-Japanese War, no trust busting, national parks, Panama Canal, expanded Navy, “Man in the Arena” speech. Without survival in Milwaukee, no preparation for World War I … questionable now.
In March 1981, a would-be assassin shot Ronald Reagan at the Hilton Hotel in Washington DC, leaving a bullet lodged near his heart. Reagan quipped to doctors, recovered in time. In May 1981, Pope John Paul II was nearly assassinated, shot in St. Peter’s Square. In 1984, Margaret Thatcher was nearly killed in a terrorist bombing, Grand Hotel, Brighten England.
Without those three individuals surviving those three assassination attempts, each narrowly – one might say by God’s Grace – they would not have lived to coordinate an end of the Soviet Union, no “Evil Empire” speech, no “Tear down this wall” speech, no conversion of Gorbachev … no now.
In Reagan’s autobiography he said, on the day, “I thanked God for what He … had done for me.” In his diary: “Whatever happens now, I owe my life to God and will try to serve him in every way I can.”
American history is a constant teacher, as is world history. What follows this attempt on Donald Trump’s life, how it will affect him, affect us, affect our history, perhaps change the course of our history is unclear. But history is filled with examples of divine intervention, and this looks like one.