From time to time, I'm going to try and post items that may not have much to do with the overall theme of this site...or then again, they may everything to do with it.
Today's story comes from Afghanistan, where a female Afghan MP is crediting G-d for a two minute delay that saved her life.
Afghan MP Safia Siddiqi was in a car convoy en route to a tour of a sugar factory near the northern town of Pul-i-Khumri when her driver pulled over to fill a tire that was low up with air.
"My car was a little bit behind the others," said Siddiqi, "I was the last person to arrive."
She was rushing towards the metal gate to catch up with the rest of the group when a huge blast went off.
Siddiqi said it felt like an earthquake.
More than 50 people, many of them children, teachers and tribal elders, died in what has become the largest bomb blast in Afghanistan in recent memory. Dozens more were horribly injured.
"It was only 1 1/2 minutes. If I was earlier I would not be here," said a visibly distraught Siddiqi in an interview at her apartment in northeast Kabul Thursday evening.
"There were so many bad things, so many bloody things," she said. "Everyone had the signs of blood on their clothes ... in the difference of 10 minutes, we had lost everything."
In her car were her driver, a nanny and her seven-month-old son, who travels with her when she tours Afghanistan's districts and provinces.
This isn't the first time Siddiqi has been the recipient of divine protection. She survived two Taliban attacks as she campaigned for her seat in the eastern province of Nangarhar, and said it is God who has kept her alive.
"It might be because of my baby and it might be because of my people."
Siddiqi, by the way, had a comfortable life in Canada and deliberately returned to Afghanistan to help her people rebuild the country. It would have been easy for her to stay where she was.
The blast killed six other Afghan MP's, including Mustafa Kazimi, a popular Hazara opposition leader.
Since the blast, Safia Siddiqi has been spending her time visiting the families of the dead and wounded, and conducting an investigation on the bombing in the Afghan parliament to determine what happened and whether there was a lapse in security.
She also had the unique experience of having to call in to correct Afghan TV stations that were reporting her dead.
At a time when selfishness and self involvement is extolled as a virtue, Safia Siddiqi's inspired heroism, and devotion to her people is definitely one of G-d's small miracles...and I have no doubt that she has been spared by divine providence.
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