9:43pm Friday night--the phone rang. It never rings that late. People know I have a child. People know he is sleeping and we are just 'chillin'. I had a bad thought-- Maybe my dad was in a accident. After all, he was on his way home from FL with the youth. Two vans. You never know what can happen. I was way off. There goes me and my morbid brain. Turns out, a friend was a little tipsy and 'needed' some info. WHEW!!
12:00pm Saturday--Carson and I are playing at home. The phone rings. It's my mom, probably wanting to hang out. What I hear on the other end isn't a happy grandma wanting to see her grandson. She is sobbing. NOT GOOD!
"What is wrong?" I ask worriedly. This can't be a good sign. I think back to when my grandpa's boat capsized, nearly two years ago this month.
"I need your help." she whispers in between frantic sobs.
"With what?" I nearly scream because she is worrying me. Another memory flashes. I think back to the time my dad was in Mexico and she called me in the middle of the night crying like this. She was sick and needed me to take her to the hospital. My mom has always over reacted, but her voice on the other end of the line works me up too.
"I need to call Marla and I don't know how" she yells.
What is she talking about, I think. "Why, mom?!?" I question.
"There has been an accident and Tim is hurt really bad." (Tim is my youngest brother Ryan's best friend.)
I had to put her broken thoughts together. I didn't take long to realize that my dad and brother were with Tim in Florida. They were on their way home, a 20 hour drive straight through. There were to be home in a couple hours. My DAD!! He was my first thought. He is always driving on these crazy trips that take him away from his family way too often and for way too long.
"Is dad ok?" I could hardly get it out.
"It was the other van. Ryan is hurt, but Tim is really hurt" she cried.
Ryan?!? Ryan is only 20. He is due to go on a two year mission away from his family this summer. He has been to the hospital the most out of all three of us. He is always getting himself into crazy predicaments, like getting a concussion from boxing with his friends. I hurriedly asked my mom for more details. I knew it!! I thought about it last night. However, it isn't strange for me to think about my loved ones getting hurt. I would probably be okay with everyone staying in the same house and never leaving if it meant we wouldn't have to go through loss.
Turns out Ryan was hurt, but not bad. Tim, his friend, was very hurt. All six passengers in the van, pictured above--looks like a charred box--were hurt, but nothing life threatening. (My dad has the details on his blog if you want the play by play, go to http://www.cmcoon.blogspot.com/)
On the way to U of M hospital I was worried. How would Ryan be? What were his thoughts? How was everyone else? How can a mother deal with this fear?
My thoughts went to Christ. Here we had six people; three thrown from a van struck by a semi moving at high speeds. There is no earthly way they could or would survive. To hear that all of them were conscious and talking blew my mind. It had to be the hand of God that picked up their wrecked bodies and saved them. There is no other explanation. There is no way that a boy thrown 120 feet from that vehicle would be up and walking around. NO EARTHLY WAY!! We all knew that the people we loved had all been spared by God.
The story was the hot topic of conversation for days to come. An adult in my room said something that stuck with me. We were talking about the accident.
She said "God doesn't plan for these things to happen. People always wonder why God lets these things happen. He doesn't; the world we live in is so tipped that they happen because of the world. God doesn't plan for this, but he is the best salvage man."
God as a salvage man. That is nothing that I had ever thought about, but it fit. Among his other names, God IS a salvage man. He salvaged this terrible wreck. In the midst of it, he scooped up each person in the van and comforted and healed them. He salvaged each one. And now, each one is on the road to recovery. Thank you Jesus for being so good. Thank you for sparing the lives of these six people. Thank you for being so great! Please help others realize it was You, only You, who saved these people. Please help all the glory and honor be to You alone. Thank you for letting me have my brother back.
