In God's Hands

     Psalm 121:1-2 says I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. What a beautiful scripture! The name of Jesus is powerful. I have called his name several times in my time of need. This true story is one such time that shows how God's plan, his love, and timing interlocked two families and their journeys together. 

   In the spring of 1980, my then-husband, 18-month old son, and I planned to travel from our home in Illinois to North Carolina to visit my family. By chance, some of our friends from North Carolina were also visiting their relatives a few towns away in Illinois. We met with them and found out they were leaving the same day as us to travel back to North Carolina. Our friends were closer to the interstate than us, so they left ahead of us. We sped up and caught up with them in the state of Indiana. We conversed with them over the CB radio for hours as we traveled. 

     At Lexington, Kentucky, our friends told us they would be getting off the interstate in about thirty minutes and taking a different route to North Carolina. A trucker yelled "LOOKOUT" over the CB radio. A car from the northbound lane was coming across the median, heading straight toward us. All I could say was, "JESUS HELP US." We couldn't avoid the accident. The car hit us head-on. We didn't have seatbelts on. My son had been standing up in the seat between my husband and me. At the last minute, my husband pushed him down into the floor of the car. The traffic was heavy. Our car spun around in the road several times without hitting anyone. Finally, the backend of the car ended up on some bushes in the interstate's median. 

     We were blessed. Although my head hit and cracked the car's windshield, and my husband's knees busted the car's dashboard. We walked away with just scratches. We were taken to the local hospital and examined, and all was well. But, the car was a total loss. We found out later the guy that hit us had a medical condition that made him pass out at the wheel. 

     We had to finish the paperwork on our car the next day. So we spent the night in a motel. Our friends from North Carolina also spent the night. They had a van and made room for us to travel with them. Before leaving, our friend, Mr. Troy Gurganus, said, " I'm going where you want me to go. I can either take you back home to Illinois or take you the rest of the way to North Carolina. It is up to you." (This is a tribute to Mr. Troy's nature.)  So we rode the rest of the way to North Carolina with the Gurganus family. 

     God helped us at that time in many ways. He arranged the timing of our journey to be at the exact time of our friends from North Carolina. He protected us from serious injury in the accident and providentially used our friends from North Carolina to take care of us. This story shows, no matter what our situation, when we turn to the Lord for help, he is always there with what we need when we need it.