“The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all;” Psalm 34:19 (NIV)
Earlier this summer, a friend called to ask for help. Bill willingly agreed to see what he could do, so after a good night’s sleep, he and I left our kids home and went to see what assistance we could give. While I had a chance to catch up with a good friend, Bill went to work and 20 minutes later, we were heading back home and our friends were pleased with the results.
Taking the opportunity for a rare date, I offered to give my free Biggby birthday drink to Bill and we headed in that direction, traveling on roads we seldom use. The next half hour was spent reconnecting, laughing and enjoying being together. Soon after, we were back together as a family of five, enjoying the rest of our weekend and getting ready for the last week of school.
Bill came home from work the next day and showed me a video of a major accident that claimed the life of one while severely injuring several. It had occurred at an intersection we had passed through yesterday, 20 minutes after we were gone. Twenty minutes. If the job our friends had asked us to help with had taken 20 minutes longer, we would have potentially been involved. If we had stood around chatting, we could have been in the hospital or morgue instead of spending the afternoon and evening with our kids. Twenty minutes. That was a sobering thought for me.
Tuesday, Bill came home from work with even more information about what had happened. It appears that the driver who ended up losing his life was purposefully speeding through the intersection. Video was taken of him speeding through the first time, missing all cars and ten minutes later speeding through again when this time he connected with the innocent, causing the accident which led him to lose his life, severely injure his passenger and several others. Not 20 minutes as I originally thought. A mere 10 minutes between a calm relaxing drive that we experienced and an accident that quite possibly could have permanently changed our lives.
This near accident made me think about an incident I’ve written about previously in Spoken from the Heart: Embracing the Adventure. I stated that I was informed I was losing my job on Monday, but God lifted the veil on Tuesday night to show me His protection when our family was almost involved in a multiple deer accident that would have severely injured or killed my husband and son while I watched from the passenger seat.
Come back next time and I will share what God reminded me of through both of these incidents.
© Cheri Swalwell 2017