As some of you may know, on Monday Hannah and Becca were in a car accident. They were shaken and bruised and it scared us all. Basically, Hannah was driving herself and Becca to volleyball practice at school. She turned from a turn lane across traffic when she should have waited and another car hit them. It spun them all the way around, knocking them across two lanes of traffic and off the road, making the air bags deploy. The car filled with air bag dust and the car was smoking which created a sense of extra panic because they thought the car was catching on fire. Once safely out of the car, they called me and then 911.
God was merciful in countless ways. I won't go into all the 'what-ifs' I noticed once I saw the way it all happened, but they were fortunate. The first officer on the scene was Tom McComas, our county sheriff, a sweet Christian man whom I know, who immediately had his arm around Hannah. There were three other school moms on the scene before I got there, having just dropped off their daughters. The other young lady wasn't hurt and was very kind.
There were consequences- Hannah was at fault and it will be documented. We no longer have a 3rd vehicle (it will be a total loss) which means a huge inconvenience with my new job, bills for towing and insurance, and so on.
But one thing jumped out at me as I was still at the scene. I was holding it together emotionally because I needed to and thought to myself... 'I'll think about that later'. You see, I needed to check the glove box for some paperwork, so I opened the passenger door. Dust flew out and I waited a minute for it to subside. Then I looked at the dashboard I'd seen hundreds of time but now it was crumpled upward and had what looked like a large, thick pillowcase hanging from it. And it occurred to me- "It worked". When we bought the car, we knew it had airbags that were supposed to deploy if there was an accident to protect the passengers... and what do you know? In that moment of crisis, it worked like it should have and they're ok. No broken bones, internal injuries or stitches needed. And for some strange reason, the fact that the airbags actually worked surprised me.
Later, after I had time to have a small melt down over the whole scary event, I could finally think about that dashboard again. You see, I think I have a tendency (maybe you do, too) to feel the same way about God as I did about those airbags. I know that God- like the airbag- is always with me. As I drive through my life, He's always there no matter where I go, just below the surface, and that brings me a great deal of comfort. But I also know that in a moment of crisis- in a split second- He will come to the forefront and be a shield and comfort in a mighty way if and when I need Him. I know this because I have a relationship with Christ that's personal and I believe what the Bible says to be true.
"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted" Psalm 34:18.
He's an ever-present part of my life but in times of crisis, it's as if He's suddenly closer, just as He promised He would be.
And the fact that He keeps that promise should NOT surprise me.
