Yesterday was a very eventful day. Early rise to be to church early for worship team practice, worship service. A great message from my pastor required a lot of extra effort for me since I've had a nagging headache for three days. So was ready to head out the door right away and home to bed, completely focused on myself, my pain, my needs. The Lord had something to say to me about my pain and self-focus. It is interesting that pain is a gift from him which I dare say reveals more about us than we'd often like to know. I left church with thoughts only of my bed and myself, period. Shortly after getting on the expressway home I came upon an accident scene with a little boy with a desperate look on his face and a mother waving for help. It was a serious accident. I pulled over because there were no emergency workers on the scene, and the little boy's desperate look was irresistible. "My boot, my boot," he cried, his snowboot laying in the expressway. I guess a coping mechanism kicked in for him to be focused on the boot, with his own pain, a wrecked truck and dad laying helplessly in the snow. I reassured him that I'd get his boot, and did. Another gentleman helped me get him settled on the tail gate of the truck and assess how he was. He seemed to have minor injuries, maybe a broken foot. I walked from that scene to where I guess Dad had been thrown to, he was in serious condition. His skull was broken and brain exposed, but he was breathing. I removed the other little boy from that scene, knowing these were not good images for a small child to linger on and held his hand at his brother's side waiting for help. I was privileged to be able to hold a confused little boy's hand and hold mom as moments later her husband was life flighted away. As I left the scene, my thoughts were no longer on myself or on my headache. God had shown me real need. I was no longer longing to satisfy myself, comfort myself...a small glimspe of what an hour could be for if not spent caring for me. I'm grateful for my headache and what it taught me.
(Please say a prayer for this family, I don't know how things turned out)
3 comments:
Oh my Johanna, what a trama. Bless you that you could serve like that. I am glad God had you in the right place at the right time. We will have to watch the papers to se if we can find out any more info. Yes, I will pray.
Johanna, I think we missed being at that accident first hand by 20 or less cars. We sat there for about 35 minutes and then the helicopter took off. I was praying for those involved, not knowing you were up there. Wow! Do you know anything now?
The paper said the man was in critical condition,in Johnstown I think. I haven't seen anything since Tues. I'm going to try to send a card. Still praying.
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