One of my favourite teachers in graduate school was (still is) Dr. John Evans. He taught me Hebrew, I fell in love with the language and it loved me right back.
I have not in any way mentioned Greek, nor is the above statement to be looked in the opposite when it comes to Greek ???: who am I kidding, me and Greek never hit it off!
So back to Dr. Evans.
He had a ‘providence clause’ in all his course outlines. A clause that never ceased to tickle me throughout my school life. It went something like this:
Providence is the only reason you are allowed not to hand in your papers on time or fail to sit an exam. Providence is an act of God, including death and illness . . . (my paraphrase isn’t quite as humorous as the original)
Well as grace would have it, I got a chance to invoke my right to use the provident clause. You should have seen the grin on my face and the twinkle in my eye as I answered yes to the providence clause . . .