I'll return to this thought in a few moments.
Thursday evening, Kelly and I were having dinner at a too-noisy place near our home. We were chatting when her phone rang. It was our Associate Pastor calling. I saw the look in Kelly's face and immediately knew there was a problem. As I checked my phone, I saw that it was on 'silent' and I had 5 missed calls, all in about a 10 minute time span. There was definitely something wrong!
Kelly got off the phone and said that one of the men in our congregation had accidentally run over two of his precious children in their driveway as he arrived home from work in his quite large dually pickup (four tires in the back). The older brother had seen both of them get hit by the truck. As we heard this, our hearts immediately broke and went into overdrive.
We rushed out of the restaurant and began making calls from our car as we headed back to town. We found out one of the children was being rushed to the local hospital with a wounded leg. The news on the other child was a heart stopper; he was being airlifted to the trauma department of a regional hospital further away.
That's where we headed.
I can't even begin to imagine how long and anguished that ride was for the parents. I know that, for Kelly and I, it was one of the longest drives we've ever taken. While we drove, we prayed. Kelly and I are blessed and honored to have a group of great prayer warriors, intercessors, that are there to pray for us in emergency situations. We managed to call a number of them and they agreed to intercede right away.
We arrived at the hospital just as the helicopter had landed. Rushing into the Emergency Room, we ran into the child's grand mother....no news yet. Just a few moments later, the admitting attendant came out, looked at us and asked if we were the boy's family.
She was smiling.
After very short introductions, she said he was....DOING FINE!!! I said, "Are you sure?' "Absolutely!" came the reply, "He talking to us and seems in good shape but we'll have to run some tests."
Just a few moments later, the Dad arrived. We rushed back to see the boy, he was lying on a gurney, watching a small TV near the head of his bed. He looked at me and said, "It's Sponge Bob! Mr. Crab is in the hospital just like I am!" He had no visible injuries, no apparent bruises and certainly no broken bones. The Dad told me he ran directly over him, had felt the wheels when they passed over his delicate little frame. We were absolutely astonished and immediately began praising God.
After some great prayer in the visiting room with the rest of the immediate family, we headed back to our town to see how the little girl was doing. She had a cut on her foot and needed 10 stitches...but that was it.
Bottom line, through this evening; 10 stitches and crutches for the girl, two hairline pelvic fractures and a similarly minor injury to the tailbone for the little boy. They are still monitoring the boy for possible internal bleeding but all indicators are that he should be able to come home tomorrow or Monday.
So....what happened? How is this possible? There's only one explanation.
I was oblivious to the part the dreams played until my wise and beautiful wife explained it to me. The dreams were there to show us that God knew this was going to happen. It was no one's fault, least of all the father's. It was an opportunity for God to demonstrate His love and His great power. He is sovereign and in charge of all things. He was going to use this situation to show His glory and give us all the assurance that He is sitting on His throne and is in control of every aspect of our lives.
The father got home from work. The kids rushed up to the car. Both of them slipped and fell underneath it as it was moving, a horrible and tragic accident. But God reached down from His throne, touched that truck with His mighty hand and lifted it up just enough to preserve those two children and show us His great love for the father, the children and the family all of whom had a ringside seat to a wonderful, supernatural miracle by an awesome God. He did all this...and told us beforehand He was going to do it.
The Doctors will try to explain this away. But that little admissions attendant with the bright smile said it all, "There are just some things we can't explain...and we're thankful for them."
Psalm 41:1–3 (NASB95)1How blessed is he who considers the helpless; The Lord will deliver him in a day of trouble.2The Lord will protect him and keep him alive, And he shall be called blessed upon the earth; And do not give him over to the desire of his enemies.3The Lord will sustain him upon his sickbed; In his illness, You restore him to health.
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