Reality Check

Well it's been awhile since I posted here.  It's not that I haven't thought about it, or that I haven't visited around to see what you're all up to.  It's simply that we've had a lot going on around here.

When I was younger, a neighbor shared that he'd gone through a tragic experience.  He called it a "Reality Check".  I didn't understand the term back then.  Of course being young, rarely did we understand the value of life and the quickness with which it can be taken.

This past week, my family faced one of those "Reality Checks".

This is a Saturn.  Like the way of many cars that we all enjoyed, they don't make these anymore.  But my husband and I are fond of them for gas mileage and durability.  So when my husband accepted a job an hour an a half's drive from home, he searched until he found a good, used Saturn to drive.  He made his daily, three-hour commute in a Saturn similar to the one in the photo.

My husband asked me to meet him up in the city after work to accomplish some things we needed to do.  Now, living in a remote and rural area, I am not accustomed to driving in big-city traffic.  So I asked our son if he could ride along.  He was glad to do this for us  -  and I was glad for the time we'd have together.

After our errands, my husband suggested that we all stop about half-way and grab a bite to eat.  So, following him on the highway, we exited and found a place to eat.  When our meal was finished, we walked to our perspective cars and entered the dark highway again.  My husband was headed to find a less expensive gas station and I was going to take our son home.

This is a Semi-truck.  I will spare you the frightening details.  Just know that as my son and I followed at a distance from my husband, all of us in the far right-lane of a three-lane highway.  We saw a semi in the center land put his blinker on and attempt to cut in between my husband and us.  Fearing he was going to hit us, I let off the gas because there was NO WAY he had enough room.

The next thing I heard was my son's scream, "HE HIT HIM!!!"  From my view I couldn't see what had happened and I yelled "HIT WHO???"  Seconds split into fragments as my eyes took in the site of my husband's Saturn spinning across all three lanes of traffic toward the median and the wall.  I could only scream, "NOOOO!!!!  GOD???  LET HIM BE OKAY!!  PROTECT HIM JESUS!!!"  And my thoughts went toward what to do.  I saw the trucker completely in our lane ahead of me now - driving on!

Miraculously, my husband was okay and was actually able to right his car and follow the trucker while in communication with 911.

The details of the night were so very frightening.  The sight of my husband's car being hit by a loaded semi and watching him spin across a busy highway into the black of night and then not knowing for a while that my husband was even alive was extremely traumatic.  I was crying and shaking and praying uncontrollably.  My husband later shared that he too was frightened because he didn't know if we'd been hit or if the semi had caused other accidents behind him.

My husband's car was "pitted" by a semi.  It spiraled through three lanes of traffic traveling at 65 mph.  It headed right toward the concrete wall in the median.  Yet - he is physically fine.

But what a "Reality Check" it was.  Today, we are thankful - so very VERY thankful to have one another alive and healthy.  One moment we could be enjoying a meal together with family and the next, we could be gone.

Wow.  Life spontaneously happens and death happens so unexpectedly.  Now I understand the meaning of "Reality Check".  I didn't want to lose my husband that night.  But I'm so glad that we have the assurance that if something did happen, my husband and son and I are all prepared to spend eternity together.  I'm also thankful that eternity, for us, didn't begin that night.

What about you?  Must you wait for a similar "Reality Check" to determine if you possess the assurance that  if you were to leave this life you'd live on throughout eternity?  I know most of us don't want to think about such things.  But I can tell you from this recent, frightening, experience, that none of us know what tomorrow - or even the next moment, holds.  Think about it.

Proverbs 27:1 (NIV)

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

Romans 6:23 (NIV)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 10:13 (NIV)

for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.