He may have evaded an assassin’s bullet, but he can’t avoid the continuous outpourings of adulation and criticism. Donald Trump is a very divisive character, even in Wales. Some see him as a ‘God anointed figure’ while others are staggered to find that so many evangelical Christians find him appealing. 

But what about the bullet that failed to kill him? Was it a poor shot, did he move his head at precisely the right moment or was he wounded by shrapnel as the FBI director suggested might have happened when addressing Congress?  The FBI now seems to have concluded that it was a bullet (or pieces of it), but whatever the reason can we claim it was ‘a miracle’ and that ‘God’s hand of protection was on him’? 

I’ve obviously prayed for Mr Trump and his family as well as the United States in general and Franklin Graham certainly hit the nail on the head when he stated that, ‘the most powerful way we can fight is on our knees in prayer’. But as I’ve prayed I’ve been thinking about another bullet, one that far fewer people will have heard of. It was fired inside Wedgewood Baptist church in Texas in September 1999 when Larry Gene Ashbrook killed seven people and wounded several others before committing suicide. 

A few days after this Police officer Chip Gillette was wandering around the church trying to make sense of the shooting when he found himself praying ‘God if there is anything left in here that I can take as proof that this really did happen, please show it to me’. And God did, because he discovered a bullet that had come to rest in a hymnal where the words from Handel’s Messiah read ‘King of Kings and Lord of Lords and He shall reign forever and ever’.

Gillette tells his story in ‘Night of Tragedy Dawning of Light’, a book that gives us the most amazing insights into all that happened on that horrendous night, and his comment is as challenging as it is inspirational. ‘I began to cry’ he recalled, ‘and to realise that Christ was telling me that ‘He is Lord’ – before the shooting, during the shooting and forever more’.  

I have no idea what will happen in November 2024. I did think Mr Trump would win by a landslide but all that changed when Kamala Harris threw down the gauntlet and the outcome seems ‘predictably unpredictable’. As the BBC’s North America Correspondent says it looks like it’s a tight race, reflecting the ‘deep partisan trenches in American politics and the distaste many voters have for Trump as a candidate’.

Whatever the result though, I think we should remember that when Handel wrote those famous words he was quoting from the Book of Revelation, a text that was written when the early church was experiencing the most horrendous persecution.  The author John had been exiled to the small Greek island of Patmos because of his faith, but as he saw out his days, he says he met the risen Christ who placed His right hand on him and assured him that he need not be afraid.

We don’t have to be afraid either because the Jesus who revealed Himself to John is still in charge. He will be before the election, after the election and forever more!