A Life Spared

We never know what the next moment holds but we are so grateful that we serve a Living God who’s a very present help in time of trouble.

Russell and I and Zachary were in Flagstaff for a wedding yesterday.  Zachary had went up on Friday, driving Seth’s truck, since he was going to be playing his cello for the wedding.  So, Saturday night, around 7:15 – 7:20 p.m. we were driving along back home.  We were ahead of Zachary with 2 vehicles separating us.  Russell is always watchful of anyone that is following us, so he was looking in his rear view mirror to see where Zachary was, when he saw sparks and something funny happen.  We were going into a slight curve at this point, so Zachary was lost from view.  The 2 vehicles passed us and no Zachary, so Russell began backing up.  Russell called him and Zachary was able to find his phone on the dash.  He was fine and had not lost consciousness at any point.

Zachary was going about 65mph.  He turned off the truck to save gas, the steering wheel locked up and because the ignition has problems he could not get the key to turn so the steering wheel would unlock.  He was in the right hand lane and the truck just kept bearing to the left.  The truck cleared the guard rail and  hit the embankment on an angle where it was only 8’ high.  When it hit it launched the trunk and it flew  about 30’ in the air.  It then hit the top of the embankment, which was now 20’ high.  They found tracks,  debris and oil at the top of this embankment.  The truck then rolled down to the bottom to rest perpendicular to the highway.

The rear wheel on the passenger side was snapped off, breaking the axle.  The tire was found on the other side of the truck and past it by about 8′.  The cab of the truck was completely fine!

A paramedic truck, fire truck and 2 police cars came.  The officers all said Zachary was a very lucky boy.  The one policeman said that there had been 5 fatalities this month on the stretch of highway he patrols and while he was getting ready for work he prayed, “Lord, be merciful don’t let there be another fatality tonight.”  He said him and the other officer were almost giddy driving to where we were because they were so happy that this accident had ended well.

Zachary’s feeling pretty beat up.  The swelling above his eye and on his head have went down.  He must have hit his head on the steering wheel.  He had blood behind his ear so something hit him there.  The new cello case that some of the young people gave him for his graduation was in the back seat and now has some cracks and those cases are hard!  His cello is fine.  His ankle and one leg is sore.

Right before this happened Zach was driving along singing “Oh, how I love Jesus.”  When he went off the road, he said he was very calm and everything was like in slow motion.  He remembers thinking, “This is probably it.  I’m going to die.”  And all he could think to say was, “Lord Jesus protect me.”

Psalms 34:7   – The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.

It’s a miracle that our son is alive and we’re feeling very grateful to a mighty God for his mercy and protective hand.