calm, shaken or spun around

Holly was in a car accident yesterday. She's ok. A bit bruised and pretty sore, but otherwise all right. Her car isn't all right but hopefully it can be fixed. The young woman who hit her ran a red light and hit the rear driver's side of Holly's SUV. She's ok too although it did a tremendous amount of damage to her smaller, older vehicle. And, I, Holly's mother, am a grateful woman.

As the Lord would have it, (luck has no part in this), I wasn't far from the scene when she called me to come to her and I was there within moments. She was already on the stretcher to go to the hospital to be checked out. The no nonsense mom in me stayed cool and business like while the paramedics bundled her up and took her to the hospital. Once there, I was calm and watched the doc check her out and offered what little information I knew about the incident. I made the necessary phone calls to her husband, dad and sister, telling them what happened. And I waited.

While the doc and staff did the necessary tests and checks to be sure Holly was ok, I was outwardly patient (mostly), but I was very eager to get Holly to her house. With the report that everything seemed fine, I wanted her home so she could begin to recuperate and put this behind her but the hospital was in slow motion.

Tony came right to the hospital and his mom came in shortly afterward. While we waited, we talked about how much worse the accident might have been had Holly slowed down first. The other car would have hit her on her door instead of the rear of the car. Or if she hadn't had her seat belt on, how she'd have been all over the inside of the vehicle and had much worse injuries because it spun around 3 times after the impact. There are many what-ifs when something like this happens, and I suppose we talked about them all in a pretty calm fashion. Holly was finally released and Tony took her home. I picked up the girls from school, bought some food for their dinner and then left her in the capable hands of her family and went home.

Last night I thanked the Lord for protecting her even though somehow I was still in emotional shut down mode. It seems as long as I keep my emotions even, it's not so scary. At least, that's how it feels. This morning I called Holly to check on her. Thank the Lord, she's feeling better than she thought she would. And now, I'm not so calm. Now all the what-ifs are running through my mind at full bore. Now I'm shaken up about how close we came to a real tragedy. And yet, there was no tragedy. The Lord did protect Holly and He did protect the other girl involved.

Holly told me that after the impact and all the spinning, she just sat there in her truck trying to get her bearings about what had just happened to her. While she sat there, somewhat dazed, a small sunbeam broke through the gray morning sky and shined right on her face, warming her, giving her comfort. It was like the Lord was assuring her everything was all right.

Truth is, whether we are calm, shaken and emotional, or hit and spun around in a vehicle, the Lord is in charge and everything is all right. I am grateful for the Lord's watchful eye and his caring hand. He took care of my daughter yesterday, and the day before that and the day before that. I trust Him to take care of my family every day. No matter how a day begins, the truth is, we have no idea how it will end, nevertheless, the Lord does and I trust Him. God is good. All the time.