Well, this last weekend took an unexpected turn–literally. I pulled out onto the main street for an early morning meeting on Saturday, going about 5 miles an hour up a busy, four-lane road, when it happened. I was going south, he was going north, but he wasn’t, for a while.
For a while he was going northwest.
Exactly in the direction of my car.
“Surely,” I thought to myself in the 3-4 seconds I had to see him coming, “Surely, he’ll adjust his course.”and then I thought to myself, foot on the break, “Just brace yourself.” And sure enough, the impact…and this:
Whammo.
I’m thankful to be sitting here three days later typing this.
Facts spilled out of his mouth like a pile of beans…and I couldn’t help but feel bad for him. At one point, after his 10th apology, I touched his arm and said, “I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’ve been through.”
I thank God:
-I wasn’t a car full of teenagers who weren’t wearing their seatbelt.
-I wasn’t a car of young kids who would grow skittish for months, maybe years, just to get back into a car again.
-That my daughter wasn’t in the back seat, that no one else was in the car.
It made me realize that God can allow or cause absolutely anything to happen in our lives. Life isn’t out of control. Things happen, and sometimes, we are allowed to step back and reflect. Other times we aren’t. Even still, what-ifs don’t help. What if I had woken up 10 minutes earlier? What if I had just grabbed a banana instead of making oatmeal?
It doesn’t help.
What does help, is knowing that our Creator God has our lives in our hands and just and Job said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” Job 1:21b
I thanked God that it was me, and I thanked him that he spared my life.
I’m thankful I’m here.
What can you be thankful for today?
