We are in the middle of ball season, which means that most days I am on the way to the ball field in the late afternoon. Yesterday was no exception. Both kids had practices scheduled for the same time, but different places. We had left the house a few minutes later than I wanted, but with plenty of time to get them to their separate destinations at the proper time. On the way, I "happened" to ask one of the kids if he had brought his water bottle, because it was field practice, and I knew he would want it. No, he had left it at home. Arguhhhhh! Another lecture was pulled from the series "Debby's lectures for the betterment of young lives". This one focused on the need to prepare ahead of time and to be responsible young people. Another day I might have let him suffer, but yesterday I pulled into the local quick mart to buy bottled water. I have no more pulled in and given him money before I heard a loud crash. A major accident has just occurred on 231. I could see that several cars were involved, but couldn't tell exactly what had happened. We left the store, taking the back roads to get to the park. Later I heard that one car had been hit head on and six cars were involved. The accident took over two hours to clear.
So what determines the events of a day? If I had not asked about the water bottle, if I had not pulled into the store, I would have rounded the corner and been in the exact vicinity of the wreck at the moment it happened. Would the wreck have happened with a different person there? Would I have gotten through before it happened, or been involved in it? What determines these things? As it happens, the car most damaged belonged to the mother of a little girl on Sara's softball team. She was alone in the car, and I heard that she was taken to the hospital. I don't know how she's doing now. Hopefully I'll hear something at practice tonight.
I am a woman of faith - I believe in the providence of God. I do not know why I was chosen to avoid the wreck, while the mother of Sara's team mate was not. All I can say is that I am grateful to God for sparing us last night.
