The menu was very light and the food took forever because the restraint had a gas leak on Monday and it's still not fixed, so they are down to a bare bones kitchen. Then, partway home I stopped to get some gas. I asked the lady in the 7-11 "Can I get gas on number 10?" And she said, "Yes, you can do that here." It was funny. The gas took probably 5 minutes.
A few minutes down the road from the gas station, I saw a flash streak across the road and then I saw some shrapnel and a wheel bouncing toward my van. In pulled over quickly and my wife told me to call the police. We had just watched, in a flash of brilliant life, a horrific accident that had happened right next to us. A pickup truck driving about 120 mph had slammed into a power pole, then ricocheted off a tree, and rolled through someone's front yard and stopped. I tried to dial 911 and gave the phone to my wife, then I ran over to the smoking truck across the street. I was the first one on the scene. I looked all around and found the driver, laying on his back mostly outside the truck with his foot caught in between the seat and the dash. He had some streaks of blood in his face and arms and he was not moving. The truck looked like it had been hit by a wrecking ball. I leaned down to check his pulse and felt nothing. His chest was not moving. There was an alarm going off on his watch that sounded like an blood sugar / insulin alert.
My whole family watched the accident happen. It happened 50' from us. My kids had front row seats. And we prayed. We all prayed. The police arrived and started doing CPR immediately, then the fire trucks, then the paramedics. They broke his foot to get him out of the truck and kept up with the CPR for a long time. They had a CPR machine, they had a defibrillator, and they went to town on this guy. There was no one else in the truck. My kids saw the whole thing. After a while we were able to leave, barely avoiding a downed power line and about 2 dozen emergency vehicles.
All the questions. All the feelings. Sadness, grief, hope. I got a nudge from the Spirit to pray for him, that he would come back, that that was God's plan. So I did. And my daughter also said she felt that he would make it and God would heal him. All my kids were in the van, praying and processing, while I was at the scene trying to be of help (and also praying and processing).
God had us go to that particular restaurant on this particular night for a purpose. He ordained it so that ths restraint would take forever with their food, and then we would need gas on the way home and have to stop for a few minutes. He ordained that we should be right in that place right at that time. And I felt for a dead man's pulse, and there wasn't any, and I prayed for him to come back to life. I am looking forward to talking to the police when they call for a statement so I can ask them if he made it. They are still working on him when we left.
The man was flying through the intersection at about 120 mph. He barely missed another vehicle and then slammed into a power pole and a tree, going straight through the intersection. The alarm on his watch that was going off when I found him makes me think that he had passed out behind the wheel and was having a medical emergency. But that medical emergency and him being passed out saved our lives. My wife pointed out that if he had been coherent and had course corrected before or after hitting the power pole, he would have slammed straight into our van and probably killed our whole family.
I don't know why God ordained all of this to happen tonight, but I do know that He is good, and that we may have just been there to pray and to cover that man and his family and those EMT's. I don't doubt that this will be a core memory for all of my children that they will hold on to for the rest of their lives. And He will use it to bring Him glory.
Life is short. The end comes fast. Don't waste the time you're hear. When something happens around you, don't pass by on the other side of the road. Dive right in, depending on the love and power of God to give you whatever you need to face whatever you'll face.
And pray with me for that man, for his family, and for my kids - that they will see the power and purpose of God in this, one day. He is good. He works all things together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). It's a war out here. You can stick your head in the sand or you can run into the battle. With Jesus, we have nothing to fear and glory for God to gain.
No comments:
Post a Comment