I could feel the truck going out of control. I knew we had just hit a patch of black ice. This had happened often enough since we moved to the Northwest but most of the time almost as fast as traction was lost it would be regained. Not this time. I let off the gas pedal and steered into the skid. It did not feel like the truck was righting itself. I looked at my young son, who was on the seat next to me, his head was down almost like he did not want to see what would happen next. I sure couldn’t blame him for that, I felt like doing the same thing.
As I continued my efforts to straighten us out, I felt a jolt. What was that? Immediately my right arm went out to protect my son. As I looked over my shoulder I could see a red pickup truck having hit the same patch of ice had careened into my bumper. Now we were locked together in a slow dance heading into on coming traffic. There was really nothing I could do but protect my son and hang on to the steering wheel with my left hand hoping for a miracle.
I don’t know if in that moment I prayed but I think I must have. If there was a god, help me but more than anything let Eric make it out of this alive. Within seconds I felt the tires meet dry road, but I knew I could not hit the gas because I was almost parallel to the highway and my back bumper was hooked to the red truck’s front. I imagine if you had a bird’s eye point of view we would have looked like a giant V sliding down the road. So, my only thought was to hit the brakes and see what happened and that is exactly what I did.
There was screeching rubber and I believe if I was not cantilevered by the other truck we would have flipped, but instead the other truck slammed into me sideways and both of us came to a complete halt, half in our lane and half in oncoming traffic and as I looked there was car heading directly for us.
Now I remember for sure I cried out, “If you are there, help us!” or something very much like that. With those words I closed my eyes and threw myself over my boy. In the seconds that felt like hours I waited for impact, but it never came. Finally, I opened my eyes to see the oncoming car had stopped; but what I did not know a semi-truck coming in the other direction had been able to stop even as it hit that patch of ice. There was a crazy silence for a few seconds and then I heard my son weeping beneath me. Jumping up I pulled him upright and checked if he was ok. Nothing, just scared. I told him not to move as I had to crawl over him to get out of the truck seeing the driver’s door was smushed in. My prayer forgotten, I had more important things to do.
These days I think how many times I was saved from certain injury or even death and know that God is not discriminating when it comes to protection of His children. He even protects sinners and fools. But if I take that thought one step farther, that is not really a surprise, we are all sinners and a whole bunch of us are fools.
When I tell people stories of my life invariably some one will say, “God must have a plan for you if He saved you so many times.” I certainly can’t disagree with them, but I also know I am not that special. He wants to save us all and I believe if you look at your life you will see many times when His hand was upon you and like me, you just took it for granted or you thought it was luck.
But the Word of God says this, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2: 3-4) God wants to save all of us and if we are willing to see it He gives us opportunity after opportunity to see His saving power in our lives, Miracles and I think today you and I should be recognizing them and thanking Him.
But, of course, it does not end there. Our salvation is not only in this world, it is in the kingdom to come and this is where the true miracle lies, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) And we are not saved in this world to live more for ourselves but to surrender our life to Him.
But I did not think of any of this standing on that dreary highway in the Olympic National Forest years ago. Even though I had cried out to God, I did not give Him a second thought, no matter how miraculously we were saved. In fact, it would be many years before I would look at His saving power with gratitude and humble surrender. Don’t waste all the years I have, acknowledge Him today. He is saving you, so you can spend eternity with Him. How cool is that!
Blessings and Happy Sabbath, John
4/27/18
