Last night (well, this morning) I had what some might call a near-death experience. For me, knowing that life is experienced in its fullest when our earthly existence comes to an end, I’d prefer to call my scrape with death a scrape with life. It was an experience so near to life that my senses were heightened and I can easily relive the experience with acute sensory details.
I was on my way back to SIL after a full family weekend. The evening got later than I expected and by midnight I was ready to settle into my dorm room bed. Just four miles from the Grand Forks exit, I was paced at I-29’s generous 75 mph speed limit when a small deer decided to share my lane. In a moment, I experienced a series of rapid events that comprised the experience of a lifetime.
I heard the “bang” of the deer hitting the front end of my car and the almost simultaneous “boom” of my airbags exploding. This set off my car horn and as I glanced back at a semi’s lights in my rearview mirror I felt the scraping of my breaks as they tried to slow my car to a stop. I made it over to the side of the road and somehow had the presence of mind (despite ringing ears from the airbag’s noise and the stench from its powder) to put the car in park, shut off the engine, remove the key, turn on my emergency flashers, and get out and away from the car. (The horn was still going off and from the light coming from one remaining beam I could see a bit of smoke coming from under my smashed hood. I decided I’d be safer further into the North Dakota prairie.)
My exciting midnight adventure ended at 2 a.m. when the friendly wrecker driver dropped me off at my dorm and I found my way to my bed. With only a few bruises, I retired to a few hours of sweet sleep, deciding to deal with my totaled car in the morning (that is to say, later in the morning).
God has already opened the door of provision for a vehicle I can drive for the rest of the summer. He’s taken care of me physically and in more ways than I know. I have much to be grateful for. I am ready for a full week here at SIL and I look forward to seeing how God will continue to demonstrate His faithfulness. He is so good to me. I praise Him because though I had a scrape with “real life,” He still has things for me to do here on earth. I look back with no regrets for the life I’m living.