An Answered Prayer

    Special Guest on my blog today - My Mom! Read her awesome testimony about a prayer God answered in her life recently:


     Sunday, December 8th.

     On this morning a beautiful event took place. Some might call it terrifying, unbelievable, or amazing; but probably not beautiful.  An event I shall not forget nor do I want to forget.

     Greg and I decided to take our kids to the 9:35 church service. The church was running on their snow schedule so we weren’t going to be teaching Sunday school, just enjoying the morning’s sermon. We felt comfortable in our decision because we had been out the day before with no problems, and we were going to church, after all.

     We were making our way out of Stonebridge when the unthinkable happened. In our neighborhood there are two entrances, a west entrance and an east entrance. Anytime the roads are too bad climbing to the east gate due to weather, the road closed barricades are put out for all to see. And those in charge of the barricades are usually extra cautious. So when we reached the point where a decision needed to be made about which road to take, we chose the east gate, since it is the shorter route, and the barricades were not present. 

     We topped the little knoll when the ice was discovered. Greg instantly knew we were in trouble. I remember his words perfectly, “We’re not going to make this, brace yourselves.” He did all he could to keep us from an accident, but it was not enough. The Suburban slid down the ice and almost came to a complete stop. I really was thinking, “We won’t go over, Greg always gets us out of difficult situations.” But another part was thinking, “But he did say to brace ourselves so he must know something.” He was so calm which I am grateful for.

     Once our vehicle slid to the embankment I immediately felt it begin to roll. The passenger side was the first to go. I remember feeling a thump and hearing the crunch of metal. It then kept rolling where the top hit, then the driver’s side, then upright, then my side again, and finally resting on its top. Throughout the ordeal I could hear the metal crunching and the windows shattering. It was the second time that it rolled on my side that my window shattered. I heard the pop and felt the pieces of shard come in around me. It happened so quickly that I didn’t know exactly what was happening until the Suburban came to its final resting place, upside down in the creek.

     I am grateful for Graham whom the whole time was saying, “We’re okay, we’re okay,” because I had no idea what was going on behind me except for clanking metal and shattering glass.

When the Suburban came to a stop I began asking, 

     “Graham, are you okay?” - “Yes, I’m okay.”

     “Caleb, are you okay” - “Yes, I’m okay.”

     “Rachel, are you okay?” - ”Yes, I’m okay.”

     “Greg, are you okay?” - “Yes, I’m okay.” 

     Those were the most wonderful words imaginable. Greg’s and Graham’s windows were the only two windows that didn’t shatter, which Graham pointed out later was kind of neat because Greg, Graham, and Caleb didn’t have their seat buckles on, and it was as if God had said, “I wanted you to stay inside the vehicle.” Fortunately, the other windows did shatter because they were our only exit. The doors were not an option.

     Once we safely crawled out of the vehicle, and it was confirmed that everyone was okay and moving, Graham so wisely commented, “I think we should pray and thank God that we are all okay.” I was so proud at that moment and all of us couldn’t agree more. I noticed tears running down Rachel’s face. Not tears of hysterics but rather merited tears, tears I understood. Before we prayed Caleb commented that he lost his shoe but he’d be okay. Well, that’s not true. It was freezing and at least 6 inches of snow on the ground so we told him we had to look for his shoe. He was just so sweet and didn’t want to cause any problems. The shoe was easily found and then we stood in a circle, at the bottom of the ravine, beside our upside down totaled Suburban and said a prayer of thanksgiving.

     We searched around the Suburban for a few minutes in search of Greg’s phone then decided we needed to start the climb out of the ravine because we were getting COLD. As we began making our way up the ravine the sound of a car was overhead. The thought immediately came to our minds, What if it goes over like we did? We are going to be squashed. I must admit the thought was extremely real and frightening.  I was on the side of the Suburban closest to the sound of the car and I had already begun making my way up the rock embankment. I could hear Greg and the kids shouting, “Mom, get out of the way, move!” I felt like I was in slow motion and not getting anywhere, the rocks were snow covered and slippery. The splashes of water from the creek didn’t make it any easier. I didn’t care about anything but getting out of the way of this vehicle in case it came over. I had wrapped my hand in my scarf earlier to stop the bleeding from the scrapes and to warm it, but now it was snow packed and making my hand cold. I was literally crawling through the snow and bushes when Greg and the kids said, “It’s okay.” The vehicle did come over the embankment, but it was stopped by a tree halfway down. The guys immediately asked the driver if she was okay and she responded yes. Now we knew we had to get up and out of there quickly before another vehicle came down. 

     It was so great reaching the top of what seemed like a mountain, but we were freezing. My hand that was bleeding was burning because it was so cold. I really couldn’t imagine walking the almost 2 miles back to our house. The idea made me want to cry. Then another blessing appeared. A couple on their way to church, who must have taken one look at us and thought, what in the world?, because our car was nowhere in sight. I’m sure we looked like quite a crew. We honestly were flagging them down to tell them they must turn around, the road was too dangerous. As soon as they realized we were in trouble, they offered us a ride home. We couldn’t accept fast enough until it appeared that the kind gentleman was going to go forward and turn around. Rachel and I immediately stopped in our tracks.  I was not about to get in the vehicle and go forward to relive that whole situation again. The kind gentleman’s wife could see the fear in my face I’m sure. She assured us we could back up, although I totally understood the guy’s concern. We were going to be backing up the knoll and if a car was coming, we would undoubtedly be crunched. At the same time that Rachel, Caleb, and I got into the backseat and Greg and Graham got in the hatchback, a truck had made its way down the hill from the east gate. He stopped to see if we were okay and then said he would go ahead and make sure we could back up safely without the worry of a car hitting us.

     Halfway home from the point of the accident, Rachel stated that she was going to throw up. I asked the kind gentleman to please stop the car so that we didn’t make more of a mess in his car. (I was already bleeding on the floor. My scarf was not doing a very good job of stopping the blood. Greg’s head had a few minor scrapes on it to so it was also bleeding and getting the roof of the vehicle soiled). The couple was so sweet and said, “It is okay, we are just glad to help.  Don’t worry about the car.” Once we stopped, which was in the middle of the street, Rachel got out. Then Greg asked to have the hatch opened because he needed some air. We were freezing, but our bodies were telling us that fresh air was a must.
     Rachel wound up fainting, but not throwing up. Greg didn’t faint but felt so lightheaded that he had to lie down for a minute, well, until we had to move because two cars were coming from the opposite direction and wanted through. After what seemed like eternity we got home. We went inside and immediately turned on the fireplace for warmth. I could only feel the burning sensation in my hand. Graham was so great. He tended to all of us in the most awesome way. He kept asking if we were okay. He checked Greg’s head and washed it with a warm rag. He helped me warm my hand and told me what I needed to do. Rachel and Caleb were awesome this whole time as well. Once Rachel was changed into dry clothes she began baking cookies and making hot chocolate to warm us up. We literally hadn’t been home more than 10 or 15 minutes before she began. Caleb was so sweet and just wanted to make sure everyone was alright and helped in any way.

     Once warm, we began to share a little about the event. I loved hearing Graham talk about what he did after Greg warned, “Brace yourselves.” He held onto the handle above his head, pressed his legs against the back of my seat, and grabbed onto Caleb who wasn’t wearing a buckle. He said he looked over at Caleb and Caleb was holding onto the mug of cereal he was about to eat (which is a funny story) tightly. Caleb didn’t even want to bring his cereal, but I made him. He told me he would make a mess and I told him he wouldn’t. But he was right, he made a mess. Milk and cereal went everywhere. I even found cereal in his ear later on.

     Within an hour’s time, Greg and Graham had gone back to the accident site to try and retrieve Greg’s phone. While they were gone I realized what had just taken place and how beautiful it was. To understand the beauty of this catastrophe, I need to go back to the night before, Saturday, Dec. 7.

     It was like any other nighttime ritual. I had finished my rounds of the Lord’s Prayer with the kids and had just kissed the boys goodnight and was making my way back to my room. I got to the banister at the top of the stairs just outside my bedroom when a strong and urgent need came over me to pray for my four kids. I often pray for my kids, but this was a different kind of prayer. This prayer was a tearful prayer, a prayer that came from the deepest place in my soul, a prayer that I wanted to make sure God understood.  It was a prayer over each of my four kids. I was asking God for something that is truly the most important thing to me as a mother, the welfare of my kid’s spiritual being rather than their physical being. My kids are great kids and have all asked Christ to be their Lord and Savior. But my heart has been grieved lately with the reality of how many young people turn from their faith, or seem to forget all that has been taught to them, or do not even realize the power of the Almighty they claim to serve, or even more sad, the power they have received through Him. I understand none of these are new attacks on the soul. I understand that it is even considered “normal” to question. There is no doubt that my soul is being stirred because my kids are now at the stages of life when the flesh wants to question and explore. I want my kids to KNOW God in a real way. I want my kids to EXPERIENCE God in a real way. I want there to be no doubt that God IS. I look at examples of men like Noah, Joshua and Caleb, Daniel, and King David. These men were not perfect men, but they KNEW who their God was. They understood His greatness. They feared Him in a reverent way. This is what I want for my kids. I know my kids are not and will not be perfect, but I also know that they do not ever have to question that God IS. Put simply, the petition from my heart that night was, “Lord, be real to my kids individually. Whatever it takes let it be known to them that You ARE. They may have questions about what they should do or how they should handle situations, but please let their questions never be about the reality of who You are.” You see, I know God is real, but I want my kids to know God is real. And they will think He is real for a season just because I told them He is real, but not until God reveals Himself to them personally, will they truly know the reality of whom He is.

     About an hour after the accident, Greg and Graham had gone back to the accident site, Rachel was making cookies, and Caleb was changing while I was sitting in front of the fireplace thinking through what had just happened. The tears began to flow as I realized that this accident was NOT about the “what ifs” or “should haves or have nots”. I was not to be saying to myself, “What if one of the the boys had been thrown from the vehicle and killed because they weren’t wearing their seat belts”, or “We should have gone right to the west gate instead of left to the east gate because that road was clear”, or “We should not have even gone to church today, what were we thinking”. 
     This accident WAS about God answering a mother’s heartfelt plea for her children.  It was about Him seeing the true desire of my heart, finding favor with it and allowing it to be answered. The accident was one of those situations that didn’t seem real, yet you knew it was because the scratches on your hand and the totaled Suburban were proof. The very idea that God allowed my family to fully experience what we know could have been an extremely devastating accident is precious to me. We saw the ice, we felt the fear that gripped us as we suddenly realized that we had no control and didn’t know what was going to happen, we heard the crunching metal, we were sprayed with the shards of glass, we were wondering if we were going to live or if everyone was okay, our fingers burned with extreme cold, all of it, the whole kit and caboodle. God let us experience it all! And what is so cool, is that he knew we were going to be okay through the whole thing. He knew the boys would be kept inside the vehicle even without their seat buckles because he willed it. He had us in the palm of His hand the whole time; YET, he wanted us to feel the accident. He wanted to show his mighty power. He wanted to prove Himself real to us.

     Although I am extremely grateful that we all amazingly walked with very few minor scrapes and bruises, I want it to be known that I am even more grateful to my Savior for showing Himself real to my family. And here is the icing on the cake, when Greg and Graham got back from the accident scene, Graham brought me my Bible and said, “Here mom, I got this for you.” He set it on the table and I went over to it. I picked it up to look at it and it fell open to a page. Yep, you guessed it. It was a message to me and my family. The passage it flipped open to is Psalm 46. I happen to have one verse underlined on these two particular pages. It is Psalm 46:10 which reads:  

“Be still and know that I am God!

I will be honored by every nation.

I will be honored throughout the world.”

     God is real and He will be honored by all. Amen.