On the morning of 18 May 2017, my sister and I were at Times Square in New York hoping to get discounted tickets for a musical. But the available seats were not good and we left disappointed.

We then met a couple who offered us cheap and good tickets for another show that we could purchase online. I’m usually sceptical of such offers, but for some reason, I took up the offer. We tried to get the tickets online but somehow couldn’t. We got frustrated and rushed to the theater’s box office to see if we could get help. After much hassle and waiting, we finally got our tickets.

When we walked out of the box office, I spotted a clothing store and decided to buy a pair of jeans from it. But I had to wait for 10 to 15 minutes before I could pay for the item as the cashier was rather slow.

When we were about to leave the store, we saw a lady lying motionless on the ground a few meters away from the entrance. Curious, I took a photo from the shop window. Then, we heard a store assistant say that a guy had killed several people along the street. By then, the police had arrived and told us to evacuate immediately. As we left, we saw more casualties.

I later found out that a mentally-ill driver had driven against the traffic and onto the sidewalk in Times Square, hitting pedestrians along the way. He killed a tourist and injured 22 others. All this happened just three minutes before I took the picture from the store.

There is no doubt that if I had not bought the pair of jeans, we would have been on that sidewalk at that very moment. In fact, if we had not gone through the hassle of getting the show tickets, we would probably be checking out Times Square that very day.

God had arranged our circumstances to steer us away from danger. Thank you, Pastor Prince for preaching on Psalm 91 and praying for our safety every Sunday. I even have a Psalm 91 card given by the church some years back in my wallet.