In God’s Hands

  In my late teen years, my friend and I decided to take our smaller siblings and a neighbor boy to the County Fair to see some of the local competition, livestock, etc.  As I remember, it was an enjoyable afternoon—that is, until we started home.  We were riding in my friend’s old Nova II; he was driving.  The conversation was light and happy, and the kids were having a blast.

  I turned around to acknowledge what someone in the back seat had said, and in the distance I saw a car gaining on us at what seemed like double our own speed.  I had time to mention it to my friend who was driving and he immediately spotted the car in his rear view mirror.  We both became alarmed almost instantly as the car was on a collision course, and already too close to safely change lanes.

  At the last fraction of a second the driver of the speeding car jerked the wheel to the left, crossed the left lane, and hit the guardrail on the other side.  His car veered off of the rail and headed toward us again.  The speeding car hit us about the middle of the driver’s side and all four tires lost traction so that we hit the curbing on the right side of the highway and started to roll over.  As the car was almost vertical on two wheels, it seemed to be mysteriously held in that position as it slid down an embankment and hit a chainlink fence before falling back on all four wheels.

  The driver of the other car had been drinking and tried to get away but was unable because of damage done to his car when he bounced off of the guardrail.  The neighbor boy who was with us received a broken arm, but everyone else in the car was without a scratch.

  Some would say we were lucky, be we all agreed that we were blessed.   You see, we believed, “… all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Roman 8:28)”  “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)  “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1)”  I still believe!