Did You Hear the One About…?

God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.                                                                                           Psalm 46:1

That phrase always leads to a story, so here is a story!

When I was young (yes, there was a time), I was involved in a rollover car wreck. I was 22 years old, and in my 1969 Rambler American. I had with me two young women. All three of us were in the front bench seat of the car. For those familiar with a Rambler American, it was a compact car. It was also a pretty generic and modest vehicle, fit for economy in all ways. Comfort or style? – not so much.

By the way, the young women in the car were my girlfriend, (now my wife of 51+ years), Deb, and her best friend Valerie. Of course, Deb was comfortably close to me in the front seat, and Valerie was perhaps not so comfortably sitting next to the passenger side door. We were, however, enjoying our ride from Oxford, Ohio to Dayton, Ohio.

That evening, it was raining, and the frugal owner of the car had managed to neglect the fact that the tires were in need of replacement. Money was tight, always, and tires cost maybe $25 or $30 apiece! I mean, whitewalls and steel belted radials were out of the question. But I digress- the tires were pretty bald.

As we approached a curve on a country road near Gratis, Ohio, I was going too fast for weather conditions (did I mention that I was 22 years old and had two young women in the car?). The nearly inevitable accident happened when I ran up the side of an embankment and the car seemed to stop and then slowly roll over.

So, here we are, upside down in the middle of a country road, rain coming down, not a light within sight, and on a curve where any car coming around the bend would easily smash into our helpless Rambler, which was sitting like a stranded turtle.

So here is the part where God does things for us that we can’t do for ourselves. As we sat in the car crawling around in the car’s interior (of course we did not have seat belts on), the next car that came upon us was the Preble County Sheriff. He ensured that traffic was stopped, helped us out of the car (which for all we knew might explode or erupt in flames), and took care of three scared and bewildered college kids.

Injuries were remarkably minimal. Valerie had a cut on her knee, Deb had a few bumps and scrapes, and I had some slivers of glass in my eyes from the shattered windshield. Valerie’s boyfriend from Dayton came and took us to Miami Valley Hospital where we were treated in the Emergency Room and released.

We often look back on this story as a provision from God that could literally have saved our lives. Often such interventions happen and we are not even aware of God’s provision for us.

This is one of those times that it was pretty obvious.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord for your presence in times of need, Amen