If you haul a trailer, how often do you inspect your hitch?

Like many things in life, it might just slip through cracks. Every once in a while, we get a subtle reminder. Hillmon Davis, an Arkansas pastor, was recently blessed with such a reminder.

“Before church yesterday, I flipped through [Facebook] for about 2 minutes,” he wrote. “One of the first several posts I saw had a picture of someone’s trailer hitch that was broken where the ball bolts through it.”

After church, Davis planned to take his young family to compete in a barrel race in Imboden, Ark. With the post fresh in his mind, he took a second to inspect his trailer hitch.

“Sure enough, it was cracked all the way through on either side where the ball bolts through it,” Davis wrote. “Had I hooked up without inspecting the hitch, there is no doubt in my mind that the hitch would have broken at some point with two of my precious kids in the truck with me, two of their precious animals in tow, and possibly your loved ones on the road with us.”

The pastor doesn’t believe this was a coincidence.

“It was one of those moments when it was extremely obvious that the Lord just protected us,” Davis wrote. “Thanks to whoever made that post! The Lord used you. … We didn’t make it to the barrel race, but did stay home safe and sound.”

This is your friendly reminder — keep yourself and others safe by inspecting your trailer hitch.