The Hand of God

In my lifetime I have had only one memorable near-death experience {just so you know: never, NEVER use all-metal pliers to remove a broken lightbulb from a lamp that is still plugged in}

Now I have two.

I was driving with a friend to Minnesota for Labor Day weekend. One of my best friends is living there currently and we'd snatched the only days we had open between work and college and family vacations to make the most of it.

We were about halfway there. Traffic wasn't bad - there were too many cars on the road to cruise and we discovered that the cruise control on my car didn't work anyway - and we were following a string of cars at 70-some miles per hour.

Up ahead we noticed that a lot of cars were swerving in and out. We naturally wondered why but since there was basically no shoulder between the road and the ditch, I wasn't too keen on driving out on it unless I knew why. {Mind you, this all happened much faster than it sounds}.

Suddenly the car in front of us swerved out at the last minute and we saw what was causing the disturbance.

A blown semi tire was lying in the middle of our lane.

I didn't have time to get out of the way and we were going to fast to stop. I don't think my foot even hit the brake as we drove straight into it. My friend shouted not to swerve right because we would hit the tank truck next to us so I did the only thing I could and wrenched the wheel to the left.

We went skidding somewhere; I have no idea what direction. A cloud of dust - just like it does in movies - kicked up and surrounded us. We couldn't see a thing. All I remember is screaming my friend's name and her screaming mine with an incredible sense of helplessness. My only conscious thought at the moment was "so this is the end". I didn't define "end" because it could have been anything. The end of our trip. The end of my car {my sister totaled her car two months ago in a freak accident. I wasn't expecting anything less.}. The end of our lives hadn't really yet been realized when the car suddenly stopped moving and the dust began to settle.

For half a second we just sat there and then I realized the car was still in drive and that we were moving forward. I slammed it into park and stared out the windshield at the oncoming traffic.

And then the miracles began to reveal themselves.

Miracle #1. We were both alive. We breathlessly asked each other over and over "are you ok?" "are YOU ok?" until we realized that we were both saying the same thing and neither of us was answering the question.

Miracle #2. The man in the tank truck we could have hit had pulled over on the other side of the road and when I rolled down my window he called over to see if we were ok. When I said we were he told us we were lucky because we'd done a complete 360 and hadn't hit or been hit by anything.

Miracle #3. We were parked neatly and safely on the side of the highway, granted we were turned the wrong way, but there was enough room for me to open my door and get out without getting hit.

Miracle #4. The ditch we landed in was very shallow and we'd easily be able to drive out if the car was still driveable.

Miracle #5. Once we'd spent some time thanking God that we were alive, my friend got out of the passenger side and checked the tires and the car. Everything was intact and there wasn't a scratch on it. I handed her the keys and said she could drive now.

Miracle #6. A State Trooper arrived on the scene and removed the tire before anyone else hit it and spun off the road to hit us. He then held back traffic in one lane of the highway while a friendly semi driver stopped traffic in the other.

Miracle #7. We drove out of the ditch and twenty minutes later were back on the road as if nothing had happened.

I don't know how anyone can say that God is not real or that He doesn't care. I have seen His hand and it was covering me.

Till next time!