When I was in high school Latin class, I remember my teacher telling us that you can easily remember the translation of the verb accident: they will happen. Accident will happen. Now, you’ll never forget how to translate the word. It is true. Accidents just happen. Or do they?
The other day I was rear-ended in a hit-and-run accident. It just happened, so to speak. I mean really, we all know that someone caused the accident, but that person wasn’t intending to hit me. It just happened. I didn’t have a choice in that moment. I just got rear-ended. The other person had choices too. She, in the red car, chose first to indicate that she’d pull over and meet me just up ahead. Then she chose to drive away going about 90 miles an hour down the highway. Oh, well. My choice was initially thinking I should pull out my phone’s camera and pursue her down the highway. Then I thought better of it. She was gone.
By this point I was shaking from adrenaline, but I knew I should pull off the highway and find a place to check out the damage and call my insurance company. The first parking lot I saw I pulled into, finding a nice shady place to park. Just as I did this, I looked up and there was a police officer giving someone else a ticket, just about 20 yards away. I signaled to him and let him know that I’d been in an accident. He said he’d be right with me.
A few minutes later, officer Dave came over to check out the situation. He told me that normally he wouldn’t help me, because my accident had been on a Phoenix city street and he was highway patrol. But since it would likely take Phoenix PD a couple of hours to get there, he’d help me. Officer Dave and I spent about 50 minutes together filling out all the paperwork.
I said to Dave, as we slogged through the necessities, “My faith tells me to forgive this young woman. I may struggle with doing that for a little bit. But I will forgive her.”
Dave responded, “Oh, I know we’re supposed to forgive one another. I struggle with it too. Life’s hard out here as a policeman. I try to do and be my best out here.” I learned a lot about Dave, in fact I learned much of his life story, how he and his father were going on vacation the next day to go fishing up in Utah, about how his wife had left him years before with the kids, about how even though he doesn’t go to church, he still has faith.
“I don’t really like going to church, but I’ve been a few times. My cousin invited me to her church, but it wasn’t for me. I told her, ‘Thanks, but I won’t be back. I’ve already met God. I don’t need church.” At this point I knew there was a story! And I waited. “You see,” said Dave, “this one time, I was in an accident, and I stopped breathing. You know all that stuff about the white light? Well, it’s absolutely true. I was going into the light, and it was warm and inviting. Then on the other side, I saw someone who looked a lot like Jesus, and he was holding out his hand to me. I reached for his hand. But then suddenly, he pulled his hand back and said, ‘It’s not your time. Go back.’ And I felt myself rushing back to my body, and suddenly I was there and started breathing again. I know everything’s alright…and it’s all going to be alright.”
“That’s a beautiful story, Dave. Thanks for sharing it. I think that you’re an answered prayer today. You were in the right place at the right time for me. I am going to say a prayer of gratitude for you today.” I’ve said a prayer of gratitude for Dave every day since then.
And the young woman? Well, I say a prayer of gratitude for her as well. Without her, I wouldn’t have met my ministering angel in a uniform.
Accidents do happen. We have choices with what we do when they happen.
Jesus tells us to love and forgive. We can still hold people accountable, when we can. And whether others take responsibility for their actions or not, we need to stand ready to how God will act in our own lives. Forgive. “Forgiveness looks good on you,” I can almost hear God saying. “Love those who do you injury. Love looks good on you.”
God’s angels appear to us in many forms. Sometimes it’s in the form of a tow-truck guy (that’s a whole n’other story), a police officer with a faith story, or even the hit-and-run driver in the red car. Accidents will happen. We are not to limit how God shows up in our life, for we just might entertain angels unaware.
