I got one of those dreaded calls moms get. The one with a huge sob on the other end and only 'Mom' would come out. The one that makes your heart stop, or at least jump into your throat. The one where you panic inside and try to keep calm and find out what happened. Yea. One of those. it was gretchen.
she was on her way to work.
she tried to tell me what had happened, but i couldn't make heads or tails out of it. all i got was that the window was busted and she was ok. i wanted to go get her, but she reassured me she was ok and she was headed to work.
later that night, she explained what had happened. sounded like a near miss to me. like a miracle. like god was truly watching out for her. when i asked her about it, she felt like the near miss was a punishment of some sort. i HATE that. we talked about it and she came around to the fact that truly he was watching over her and protected her.
i felt compelled to go by the 'scene' to see what i could see.
i was shocked.
i could do nothing but pray and praise jesus for keeping my little girl safe.
the pictures will show how close she came to, probably, losing her life. while i was there, the intersection was empty. i prayed and asked god to put a car in the position gretchen was in at the time. that is this:
an 18-wheeler came upon a red light and was, ahem, distracted, it seems. there were cars lined up at the red light, so he swerved to miss them and went into the grass, hitting, knocking over and bending signs. the light was green (for what would have been this white truck) for gretchen. she said she did not know what made her NOT move, but she didn't. she looked over and saw this truck coming at her and said she literally thought she was gonna die.
the truck came, it looks like to me about 2-3 inches from hitting her straight on.
he never stopped. he just hit the highway and kept on going.
i am amazed and oh. so. thankful i have my 17 year old precious daughter still here. and i am so glad she is beginning to see how much he loves her to protect her like he did. and! i am so glad he is not done with her yet and she is beginning to see she has a purpose to be here.
ok..so i did not take this picture, but i wanted to write about a dream i had and this is the closest thing i could find to communicate the image i have about it.
i had a dream a while back...in this dream i was a servant girl living in a mud hut...i was dirty, worn and tired. i was fighting fire breathing dragons that were attacking me and my hut. i was trapped in my little hut with no way out. i was alone. i was crying out for help, and what i got was things being thrown at me....books, tapes, seminars, conferences...(you get the idea?)...i could not use them for the job at hand...they were tools but not the right ones for this job. as i was beating a dragon away, i got my foot in the door and could only see out that much. what i saw was a castle. it was sitting up on a hill far away...but as i saw it, i KNEW that was where i belonged....not in the mud hut. and in the foreground was a knight...riding a white horse. HE was who was going to take me to my castle. i realized then that i was a princess, not a servant girl and my home was a castle, not a mud hut and that this MAN was going to fight for me....and HE came and fought my dragons for me so that i could leave the place i was trapped and live where i belonged.
if you have ever forgotten your lunch or have a child who has forgotten their lunch, you know what a hassle it is for everyone!! with 7 kids in school and all the forgotten things, i have run plum out of patience. reagan had forgotten it one too many times this year when i told her, "if you forget it again, don't call me. you will just need to do without."....well, she remembered very well.....until friday :( she called me and hung up....called again and i could tell she was SCARED. she said she forgot it and the teacher made her call me. i told her i would take care of it for her. as i was walking out the door with her lunch, God prompted me to put in some strawberries (that she had been eyeing all morning) and a little love note.
when she got home from school, she had the biggest grin on her face....God then downloaded (that is the best description I have) a lesson in this...i told her...reagan, this is what grace and mercy look like. grace is NOT getting what we deserved...in this instance, a forfeited lunch and hunger. AND, mercy is getting what we DON'T deserve....again...the extra treat of strawberries and a love note.....