A Fender-Bender !

Hello Friends,

Ever have an encounter with angels? Well, we didn't actually see them, but I'm pretty sure that on December 18, 1973, guardian angels swept down and surrounded us with their protective wings. Permit this Excursus, prior to continuing with the subject that was promised in the last post.

Our friends, Lynn and Kat Todd had moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, and were living in some apartments near our house. They were teaching at Stonewall High School, about ten or so miles south of Shreveport. Lynn had landed the Head Basketball Coach, position at the school and Kat was teaching Home Economics there as well. Lynn and Robert were incurable basketball fanatics that had long enjoyed a shared interest in that great sport. Stonewall H.S., didn't have the size or funding to supply Lynn with an assistant, but it just happened that Robert was a "wannabe" basketball coach that also happened to be available for service. So, it happened that Robert and Trudy were frequent attendees of the basketball games involving Stonewall High School. Robert would sit on the bench with Coach Todd and Trudy would sit in the bleachers with Coach's wife, Kat.

That is the background for the incredible event of December 18, 1973. Stonewall was playing a home game that night against Pleasant Hill High School, and Robert and Trudy would be there as usual...except...something extraordinary happened as they were on their way to Stonewall. We headed our 1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle south, on Highway 171, to traverse the ten or so miles from our house to the school on that fateful Tuesday night. We had left in plenty of time for Robert to help with all three of the games (J.V., Girls, and Boys Varsity). After the games we would head over to Lynn and Kat's house for some refreshments and some rehashing of the games. At least that was the plan. About two or three miles before we got to Stonewall, "it" happened.

We were in a steady stream of south-bound traffic at a speed near about the posted speed limit of 60 mph, when from a side road to our left, a mid-sixties vintage Buick pulled right out across heavy traffic and picked our car out for an unavoidable collision! I remember that both Trudy and I hollered, "Watch Out!" at the same instant. The next thing I remember was the car rolling to a stop against the slight bank of the ditch on the opposite side of the highway. I tried to apply the brakes and I tried to steer away from the embankment...but nothing worked. Thud, we came to a stop! Now, my head was beginning to clear just a bit. The windshield was gone and the sheet metal of the car was all crumpled back toward us...I now remembered the Buick pulling in front of our path, and instantly, my entire thought process turned to Trudy. I looked to my right and scanned the passenger area...and I saw her...or at least I saw her blond hair. She was face down in the tiny space of the floorboard in front of her seat! She was totally motionless and initially unresponsive to my voice and my touch. I feared the worst. Thankfully, she began to rouse and I was able to help her to get back into her seat. Both of us were quite dazed, Trudy the more so as she was disoriented and groggy. It seemed only moments before help arrived and we were on our way to the hospital in an ambulance. We were treated and released with Trudy having only a few stitches needed.

Angels? Well, the next day I went to see the wreckage, and, oh my, I don't know how either of us "walked away" from that crumpled up mess! We broadsided one of the heaviest cars ever mass-produced, while driving in a...VW bug...and were barely injured and we had zero traumatic memories. The only answer I have is the divine protection of supernatural angel guardians. Trudy was spared, that I know! In retrospect, I can see that a moment could have changed everything. God granted me many great years with the "wife of my youth," gave us the the great gifts of Wendy and Brian, the special prayer answers of Wendy's Kirk, and Brian's Jessica; and the grand gifts of Daniel, Melanie, Kara, and Meredith.

It is a lesson that bears expressing to the best possible measure: Life is more precious than possessions, more substantive than fine vacations, and to be more treasured than status. Our life, Robert and Trudy's, was God's great and blessed gift. Man, nothing can top the simple assurance of knowing God's design for your life...richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to cherish and to love; till death alone shall part us.

Next time, the story continues.

Blessings,
Robert

You realize, don't you, that their personal angels are constantly in touch with My Father in heaven? (Matt. 18:10 The Message).

Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you; rejoice in the wife of your youth (Prov. 5:18 New Living Translation).