Yesterday Birgitta was programmed toward her university, excited that the 5 hour drive would reunite her with friends and put her into a summer school course she wanted to take. But as she sped down the center lane of an Illinois toll road headed for Iowa, her life was put on the line.
The sky-blue, 1994 Honda Accord she and Louisa have shared since 2007 has safely transported them over 72,000 miles, most of it at high speed. But yesterday that same car nearly took Birgitta’s life.
A corroded hood latch let loose, sending the hood sailing up and back with such force it smashed the entire windshield, depositing glass shards in her lap and at her feet, cracking the car roof and shaping it into a V.
But worse than that was the terror of hurtling down the highway blind, with the hood cemented to the windshield. Although she doesn’t remember what happened in the next critical seconds, she does remember screaming at the earsplitting bang of the hood impacting the glass.
Somehow she kept her head and swung left (as she said, “without looking”), and landed on the shoulder, heart pounding and tears flowing.
I was in a store 15 miles away without my phone (left in the car), but God was on the scene. Within minutes he placed a helpful policeman and a highway assistance-truck on either side of her, and by the time I arrived, Birgitta was calmer than both men. They were remembering similar accidents with far different outcomes, and they told us so. The situation might easily have included an ambulance, a hospital or a funeral home.
An hour later, sitting in a body shop waiting room, we learned our reliable Accord with 217,000 faithful miles on it would cost double its value to fix. But Joey, the estimator, remembered us (especially Nate) from multiple prior car repairs and kindly waived his tow truck’s fee.
So we shifted Birgitta’s dorm room cargo from her car to mine, said goodbye to her driving independence, and drove to Iowa.
Some might say, “How could God let that happen?” The better question is, “Why did he bless us so lavishly?”
- Birgitta was unharmed!
- No other cars or passengers were involved.
- It occurred before she’d driven too far from home.
- Help arrived within minutes.
- Although she’d misplaced her driver’s license last week and couldn’t produce it, the policeman didn’t ticket her.
- The tow truck happened to come from the body shop of our family’s car history.
- Joey remembered us and waived the $135 fee.
- I received one extra day with my daughter.
As we left the body shop, Joey said to Birgitta, “You shouldn’t be here right now. With your kind of luck, I’d go play the lottery!” But of course luck had nothing to do with it.
Although God doesn’t prevent every accident, this time his choice and mine had been in perfect sync.
“The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch…” (Proverbs 15:3a)
