You May Never Know . . . . .

It was Christmas Day, and to the usual hustle and bustle of the holidays was added the hustle and bustle of getting two very small children ready to go to Grandma's house. It always seemed to take longer than expected, and this day was no exception. By the time we were ready to go, we were 40 minutes late. We piled everyone into the car and headed south on the freeway for the one hour drive.

About halfway through our trip, we noticed lights and commotion up ahead on the freeway. We hadn't seen many cars on the road, but the ones that were traveling were being slowed to a crawl, and we were forced to join them. As we got closer, we realized there had been an accident--evidently a pretty bad one. It is always sad to come upon an accident, but on Christmas Day, it seemed even more sobering. As we crept by, there was time to observe some of the details--most notably, the minivan that was identical to ours and the fact that the accident had happened quite recently. My heart beat a little faster as I realized that, had we been on time leaving the house, it might have been us twisted and broken on the side of the freeway. I raised a prayer of thanksgiving that we had been delayed by whatever it was that had delayed us.

Several days later, I had to take my 12 year old son to the airport and was picking up my mother so I wouldn't have to drive back alone (which was always hard for me to do after sending my son off to his father's house). Again, with two very small children to get ready, I was running late. There was construction being done on the freeway, and the road was diverted through one of the towns, and just as we reached the detour, I noticed lights, commotion. My heart sank as I realized there had been another accident, and by the looks of the scene it had been only a few minutes earlier--possibly the 20 minutes I had been delayed at home.

I don't know if you will believe me if I tell you that later that evening, as we were driving home from the airport, there was another accident that occurred just ahead of me. A car spinning on its roof, coming to rest against the center divider. I remember having felt frustrated with the traffic, frustrated that I wasn't further ahead in the crowd. But as it turned out, I was only 4 or 5 cars from the accident.

Sometimes we get delayed--a slow car, we can't find our keys, we forget something important and must go back to find it, a roadblock or detour where we didn't expect one--and we get frustrated, anxious, stressed, and angry. We think we are being mistreated, persecuted, or abused. We don't understand why things aren't going our way. But stop and think about what you may be missing because you are running late. Stop and think that maybe you are being protected by that slow car, or by the few minutes it takes to find your keys, and say a prayer of thanksgiving.  Because you may never know what you were spared.