Blessed and Highly Favored

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
Psalm 23, kjv


I know I've been away for awhile, but in this season of remembrance of the birth of our savior, I just wanted to take a minute to share a reminder of just how good God is, and the true reason for the season.

Every winter I drive from NC to Boston to spend some time at home before Christmas. This time, due to the weather I stayed overnight in NJ to avoid the snow, and planned to leave this morning with enough time to get home before the road had time to freeze.

I had just gotten into CT and there was traffic, but it was moving pretty well when a car swerved from the middle lane into the left lane where I was driving. I beeped at it, and also swerved into the shoulder to avoid hitting it. The roads had been treated but apparently the shoulder, while plowed, had not, so it was icy slush. I lost control and did a 360 (or more accurately, a 180) across the 3 lanes of traffic, before I came to a stop in the shoulder on the right side of the road, facing the oncoming traffic (hitting the guard rail with my left bumper).

By the grace of God, no one hit me, nor did I hit anyone as I spun across those lanes of traffic. A kind woman (an angel!) who witnessed it stopped, called the police for me, and waited until they arrived, because as you might imagine, although physically unhurt, I was pretty shaken up. I was ok when I called my aunt to tell her what had happened, but fell apart when I was finally able to reach my mom on the phone, so it was truly a blessing not to have to wait alone, because due to the resulting traffic, it took ~20 min for a state trooper to arrive.

When the trooper arrived, he stopped the traffic so I could turn the car around. Other than damage to the bumper, the area above the bumper, and the tail light that hit the guardrail, the car is fine. It was mechanically sound, so after I received the police report I continued on my way, with 200 miles left to drive.

The rest of the trip was an adventure, because my nerves were on edge and couldn't help crying tears of joy periodically, thinking about what could have happened. It got worse when I got to northern CT/RI, where the road was so bad at some points that I could not even see the lanes. I also ran out of windshield wiper fluid somewhere in CT, and was scared to pull over/take an exit to try to clean the window for fear of getting stuck. I drove no faster than 40 mph the last 120 miles, and the last 20 miles of the trip were so bad all I could do was pray for God to get me home safely, and as you can see, he did. TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

Take some time out of the gift giving madness this holiday season to think about what God has done for you TODAY. Do not take the life he has given you for granted, because you never know what tomorrow will bring.

Merry Christmas!

-AMR