All Things

It was Thanksgiving Day 3 years ago. On the way home from visiting friends and family, we were going to change and get ready to go to visit more family. And as I continued driving home, bemoaning how late we would be, I drove through the intersection, my green light signaling the way. And as I crossed through, he never stopped as he turned into the front of my SUV. As he struck the vehicle and glass shattered, we came to an abrupt stop....on a small overpass bridge....over water. He had tried to correct ever so slightly, because had he not, he would have hit where I was sitting straight on. Instead his vehicle ran all the length of my side, making it impossible to open a door and shattering all the glass. My kids. One in front and one in back. They were ok. They were unhurt. I was stuck. I couldn't unlock my phone to call anyone. I started screaming. It was my girl who pushed the numbers to make it all work. Neighbors came because they heard the loud crash. I called the one who was my own then.  We have been in a horrible wreck I cried. Then then phone was dead. But I knew it only meant he was well on his way to come to us. And that he was. The driver was arrested. He had been drinking. And as shaken as we were, we were unharmed. 

When I think about that time, in the middle of what was the hardest point of my marriage, a literal month before the destruction that awaited us, I wonder.  What plan did God have for all of this past three years that perhaps the enemy of our soul wanted to prevent from ever beginning? God protected us, spared our lives only to see the destruction of our family days later. Why?  It reminds me that His plan is greater than any other. It reminds me that His ways don't always make sense. That His purpose in all things will always prevail. That the destruction He sometimes brings is to give life, not bring death, although sometimes that life is preceded by the loss of things we do not understand. I am breathing, so there is purpose today. Thankful.