That dreaded phone call....

Philip and I arrived home last evening, after dropping off two church children I had babysat yesterday. The message from Shari on the answering machine was very calm and even: "Hey Mom and Dad, if you could me a call when you get back...even if it's late, it doesn't matter." As I ran up the stairs to do so, my maternal instinct picked up on something...Shari wasn't wanting me to hyperventilate about something. And so I wasn't surprised when she told me Alicia had been involved in an accident.

A couple hours earlier, before we left the house, Alicia had called and chatted with her dad and I about her week and about installing a new chip in her phone. She and her friend Alonna were on their way to a revival meeting at another church in the area. Philip asked her if she had her bluetooth on, and she assured him she did and that she had both hands on the wheel. It was rainy out, but that she was being careful. As we talked, she and Lona came up an accident around which they had to detour, taking another back road that Lona told her about, but with which Alicia was unfamiliar. We cut the call short, because we needed to get the kids back to their mom. But just before we hung up I told her, like all moms do, to be careful and that we were praying for her.

As we found out later, just down the road she slowed down for a curve, but being slippery, her brakes locked and they slid off the road, hitting a tree. Long story short, a friend traveling the same road behind them, saw it happen and got the police and ambulance there. The girls were both taken in and released last evening-- Alicia with a swollen face from the airbag hitting her, and Alonna in a neck brace after a CAT scan and a number of tests.

I know you can imagine what it felt like to be more than 2000 miles away at a time like that--I was shouting inside that I needed to be there, and Philip was really torn up....

I recalled then a verse that had been coming to my mind throughout the previous week, and which even had been on the quiz Carlitos and I had taken on the computer yesterday afternoon: "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them." (Psalm 34:6) (When I saw it, I thought, there's that verse popping up again, the same one I've been thinking about...)

Well, I don't think it is coincidental. I really and truly believe God's angels were around the girls last night, protecting them from what could have been a total tragedy. An tragedy that unfortunately has happened to many parents, and one from which God, in His great mercy, chose to spare us.

I slipped into her old room last night to look at the pictures of her on the desk...

Heavenly Father, thank you.