Wonder

On our way home to Oklahoma over Christmas, we drove through a downpour. It was stressful as it was one of those relentless rains where one can barely see the road despite the windshield wipers madly swiping back and forth on the highest setting, and, to top it off, it was black as midnight. Roy and I talked in low tones as he stared straight ahead, utterly concentrating on the road. Finally, it let up a bit and the tension in the car eased as we all settled in for several more hours of riding before stopping for the night. We were just on the outskirts of Nashville when we saw a myriad of flashing lights on all sides. What's going on? I asked. And then, as our vision came into focus, we realized there had been a wreck and car parts were scattered endlessly; mangled cars were everywhere. Suddenly a policeman appeared on our left, standing by the side of the road with a flashlight, waving it frantically up and down. Slow down! he yelled, and so, obediently, Roy stepped on the brake and got into line behind a car that, too, had slowed to dodge the wreckage. Darian was watching behind when she noticed headlights coming up on us unawares. I don't remember if she warned us that we were about to get hit as it happened so fast, but suddenly we heard the crash of metal on metal, felt the car jolt forward suddenly...We've been hit! But then, the driver, clearly seeing our car at this point, jerked his wheel to avoid us  and plunged into the side of the car parallel with us, adding three more vehicles to the wreckage.

"Everybody okay?" Roy asked, as he pulled over to the side of the road, our car now joining a throng of other disabled travelers.

Though we definitely felt the jolt, it wasn't enough to bring harm to any of us and so, we breathed a collective prayer: Thank you... as we looked around through the darkness at the carnage. It seemed impossible that someone didn't lose their life in the midst of such devastation. Vehicles were everywhere, scattered about as though a child had picked up a handful of toy cars and tossed them in the air, letting them land at will. 

And then the waiting game began. Shortly after we pulled over to the side, a policeman ran our direction, a long flashlight in hand. He pointed it towards us, its light blinding, as he frantically yelled, "Everybody okay in there?", waiting just long enough to hear a resounding, "Yeah--we're fine!" before running on to the next vehicle. 

After our incident, they blocked the highway and as we looked behind us, we could see a stream of endless headlights fading into the blackness. It was about 8:30 p.m. and the waiting game had just begun.

Eventually fire trucks and wreckers arrived and they began the task of loading up vehicles that looked more like a mass of mangled metal than a vehicle. We watched a man drive out of a field on our right where he had been catapulted off the highway, and park his jeep just ahead of us. He was on his cell phone, complaining to someone about how he was just a college student, he couldn't afford to fix his car. What am I going to do?

What are you going to do? Be thankful you're alive!

Finally, a woman in uniform headed our way and told us the story. Someone had been heading east on a westbound freeway and had a head-on collision which sparked a pileup of vehicles. Our little wreck involved three more vehicles. And then she said--

And this is truly a Christmas miracle because every single person is able to walk away. I don't consider myself a religious person, but this has to be the handiwork of God.

It was about midnight before they finally gave us permission to drive on. Out of those eleven disabled vehicles that were stranded on the side of the road, we were the only ones that drove away. Granted, we had a mangled bumper and the side of our car looked like someone had come along and squeezed it just so. But regardless, we could drive.

We drove on in wonder--not that we were the only car able to drive as I have a difficult time thinking God works that way...I am no more special than the next person...but rather that all of the passengers in an eleven car pileup managed to walk away unharmed.

That was our Christmas miracle.