The Right Turn

Courtesy of Javier Quiroga via Unsplash.

It took me a moment to realize what had happened. My brain quickly connected all the stuff falling off my dash to the jolted van to the cries that soon began emanating from my toddler's carseat.

I've been rear-ended.

Superkid and I were in Grande Prairie doing some errands for the day. I had just left Costco, and was turning right onto the main thoroughfare from the more-secondary road next to their parking lot when I noticed a car zipping up on me in the lane I was turning into, so I stopped. That's when the sickening crunch rang through the vehicle.

I pulled up on the side of the road and put on the hazard lights. I quickly ran back to the car, noticing that the lady was on her cell phone, and hysterical. Between her sobs and apologies, I managed to ask her to pull up ahead to the next block so we could be off the road.

After pulling into the parking lot of Mickie-D's, I went around the van to get Superkid. As soon as I pulled him out of the vehicle, he quickly calmed down. The impact had not been hard—I knew I had not suffered any ill effects, and was certain that Superkid had not had any whiplash either. I chocked his tears up to fear. (Later, while changing his diaper, I noticed that he had bit his lip rather hard on the inside, and it was slightly swollen and purple. This seems to be the worst injury either of us experienced.)

Stacy, the lady in the little silver car, was beside herself. Despite my assurances that we were all right, it was just some minor damage to the van and her car, she kept apologizing over and over again, saying things like, "I just got in from B.C. to see my dad. He's gonna kill me! My boyfriend's gonna kill me!"

I felt sorry for her, actually—yes, it was a sucky thing to happen, but at least we were all okay, and we both have collision insurance (I was more concerned that she have it, since hers would be paying!), so although she was understandably shaken, I thought she must have very little grace extended to her in her life if she was more worried about her father's and boyfriend's reactions being negative toward her rather than concern for her well-being. (Did that sentence make any sense at all?)

We exchanged information, and I replaced Superkid in his car seat so I could hurry over to Home Depot and get some cabinet ideas before they closed.

It wasn't until I was buckling myself back into the van that I remembered the thing that makes the whole event just amazing—a total reminder of how God looks after his kids.

The stop before Costco had been Wal-Mart. As I was buckling Superkid back into his seat there, I had noticed that the seat belt holding his car seat in was slack.

What the—?

Further investigation revealed that Monkey, who has recently discovered how to unlatch seatbelts, had been practicing his new-found skills on Superkid’s restraint. Normally, I buckle Superkid in from the other side, where we have removed one of the seats from the middle row to make it easier to buckle everyone in from one position. Had I done that at Wal-Mart, instead of buckling him in from the other side, I would likely not have noticed that he had virtually nothing keeping his car-seat onto the van's seat.

Had I not noticed that, today's story could have been a lot more tragic.

As realization swept over me, my heart lifted in praise to Jehovah Jireh, God the Provider, for showing me what needed to be done today to protect both of his kids in our van with such timeliness.

Perhaps this was meant as a divine appointment, so I may have the opportunity to pour love on Stacy. Even if only briefly, this may be my chance to help lift her up.

And that, my friends, is truly amazing.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28 (NIV)