Divine Intervention

It was a rainy, cool morning that Saturday in February and I chose to drive my pregnant wife to work that day.  She had a client conference that afternoon and she wanted to get in early to prepare, 6:30am early.  I was concerned with her driving in the rain while being pregnant because we live in San Diego, California and we don’t get our fair share of rain, so people seem to forget how to drive in it.

We drove southbound towards downtown and I noticed how many cars were on the road that morning.  “Good thing we drove your car babe,” I said to my wife. “Why she asked?” while glancing over.  “Because it’s cold today!”  See my truck, although much safer as it is more rugged and higher off of the ground, had a leaking roof and no heat.  Her little Toyota was dry and the heat worked.

I dropped her off with a kiss and drove away.  As I left downtown, I heard, what seemed to be siren after siren.  After safely maneuvering the city roads, I made my move onto the highway.  Cars were flying by me as I merged into the slow lane.  I kept thinking to myself, “what a bunch of irresponsible drivers,” well… maybe I thought a little harsher than that.

I wasn’t on the road a couple of minutes when I noticed an SUV sliding across the highway towards the side of the road, through the guard rail and then on down the hill. At first I couldn’t believe what I had just witnessed. As fast as I watched the event unfold, I made a quick decision to pull over at the only area I could, a narrow stretch of shoulder on a bridge just after the smashed guardrail.

I called 911 to report the location of the accident.  I thought about getting out and checking on the SUV that had gone over the hill, but a little voice in my head kept saying, “Don’t get out of the car; don’t get out of the car.”  The shoulder was real tight and vehicles were flying by me.  Amazing how fast people will drive in bad weather.  So I decided to wait there until the emergency vehicles responded.   Not a minute later another voice, this time more mighty than before, told me to “Get out of the car, Get out of the car now!”

Without hesitation I obeyed, leaving all of my personal possessions behind, I jumped out of the car and sprinted towards the side of the road just above the hill.  It was crazy.  I didn’t think about my wallet or cell phone that I left behind.  I didn’t even turn my wife’s car off.

As I turned and looked down the hill at the SUV I thought about running down to help, but I saw a young guy standing near me.  Thinking he had stopped to help as well, I asked him if he had checked on the passengers.  “Have you gone down to see if everyone is all right?  No, he said,” I was the only one on the truck. “You were the driver?”  “Yeah, I’m by myself.”

He barely finished his sentence, when out of nowhere I see this huge pickup truck spinning out of control and sliding towards us.  It was like a cartoon when things slow down and get real animated.  The truck must have just missed me by about 10 feet as it hydro-planed us smashing right into my wife’s car on the shoulder.

The impact was so loud and devastating it ran chills up and down my body.  It was surreal.  I found myself staring at the car I had just been sitting in all warm and dry as I was cautiously back-peddling away from the danger.  At this point, I didn’t trust standing anywhere near the highway after what I just experienced.

By now, the California Highway Patrol had shown up and set up flares to secure the area, although it didn’t seem to slow down all of the vehicles whizzing by.  In end up speaking to the guy I stopped to help and then the guy that rammed my wife’s car and all I could think of is how the Lord kept me out of harm’s way.  This was divine intervention at its finest moment.