Sitting in the locker room with teammates is the last place Brandon Jeter ever expected to get hit in the head with a baseball bat. But that is exactly where the accident occurred.
Brandon and his team were gathered in the locker room after practice when he was hit by a bat with full swing velocity. The other teammate started practicing his swing, not realizing how close he was to Brandon.
Brandon was hit so hard it knocked him down and he started bleeding profusely from his forehead. An ambulance was called. While in the ambulance feeling terrified and very freaked out, Brandon heard a voice say, “You are going to be fine.” Suddenly he had a peace. He knew he was going to be OK. He was in God’s hands.
As the doctors examined him and stitched him up, Brandon was wondering how he was still alive. According to the ambulance paramedic, this blow to the head could be very serious depending on where the bruising settles. It would make a big difference if the bruising was on the inside or outside of the skull. He then remembered the voice he heard in the ambulance,”You are going to be fine.” The bruising was on the outside of the skull. The doctors said he didn’t even have so much as a concussion. Brandon knew it was a miracle.
This was the second time in his life that Brandon experienced a better understanding of who God really is.
The first time he felt he had a real epiphany was during his confirmation class in middle school. He has been raised in the church since he can remember. He has always been a Christian. But during this class Brandon says, “My eyes were opened and I began to realize that Christianity was bigger than I thought.” He began connecting the dots. Christianity was not just a religion but a relationship with a loving God. God sent his one and only son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for him. The magnitude of that set in.
These “epiphanies” as he calls them, have led Brandon to look at things differently. God is present in everything, not just the big things. Every little thing we do can have an impact on someone’s life. “It was because someone agreed to teach my confirmation class (possibly a small thing to them), that my life was changed,” he states.
At 17 years old, Brandon is president of M25 (New Life’s Youth Group) and a member of the Tech Team. He will begin his senior year at Matoaca High School this fall where he participates in the IT specialty program. A life guard, swimmer and runner, Brandon is involved in many things. He believes though that because he continues to grow closer to God, he lives a calmer life. He has learned to let things go.
It is important to know that even the small thing you do can be significant. Brandon reminds us, “God takes even the small things and amplifies them to glorify himself.”
