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Monday, October 15, 2012

A simple trip home down highway 169





Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  James 4:14


Our family has taken the same trip home from church for over 20 years.  This was a beautiful Sunday afternoon with sun shining and warm temps. Suddenly, I saw brake lights in the cars ahead of us. I cautioned my wife to slow down in case she was slow to react to the scene I was seeing.

Then the cars came to a dead stop.  No it wasn't the power grid that went silent and all the computerized cars stopped operating. I glanced at the scene of the mayhem.  It looked like truck tires sticking up in the air.  My mind continued to analyzed the situation and noticed that it was a white suv with all of it's windows blown out lying on it's roof.  We were 3 cars behind the mayhem. I told my wife to call 9-1-1.  I presumed in this digital age that everyone else who had cell phones did so too.

My son and I got out and started walking toward the accident scene along with many other strangers that were on this  highway this Sunday afternoon. When I reach  the door there were two other ladies that were there first who helped maintain her calm until emergency help arrived. 

 Not sure if she climbed out of her upside down vehicle, but she was standing being held by these ladies. The lady that climbed out asked "what happened". The two ladies tried to  maintain her calm with appropriate responses. Then she said she felt her heart beating fast and she felt pain in her neck and shoulder's.  She was in a state of disorientation and shock. She didn't want to leave her vehical. Everyone of us in this same situation would be overcome with shock not wanting to believe that something traumatic happened to us.

Her SUV's contents were spewed out across the highway. Many library books, sheet music, 100's of recyclable metal can tops, DVD's and Minnesota Christian Chronicles  were blown across the highway like a disaster scene was unfolding. Many, many strangers were picking up these items and setting them back into the broken window of the overturned SUV.

One stranger decided to help direct some of the traffic around the accident.

This lady was fortunate.  There could have easily have been inattentive drivers behind her crashing into her vehicle, or even a chain collision.  The truck could have caught fire.

Then I heard the familiar sounds of help arriving.  First, there was the ambulance and then the police.  When I heard those sounds I couldn't have been happier.

The scene that we experienced reminds us how fragile life really is and how easily our life could be snuffed out in a tiny hair of a split second.   If this accident had occurred in the middle of December when the roads are slick I think the outcome would have been much different. 

No matter what happens in your life you can rest knowing that Christ is there to rescue you and bring you home to heaven.

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