Good thing my Dad taught me how to drive...

Rebekah, Lucy and Jackson meet their first Sheriff. Jackson was most impressed by finding himself face to face with a real gun in its holster.

I hit this box-spring mattress at 65 mph just after changing into the center lane on Hwy 101 north. Because I had just changed lanes, I knew I had cars on my right and left and close behind me, so I had to drive on through. Following the impact I looked over my right shoulder and, miraculously, saw a gap in the traffic through which I eased the car onto the shoulder of the highway. The car was handling really rough and making a lot of dragging noise, I so I said to Rebekah, "I think we have a flat."

She jumped out to comfort Jackson who was getting pretty worked up in the back seat, then she called out to me that the mattress was still under the car and might catch fire. Seconds later I was across the front seat, out the passenger side door and had Lucy out of her car seat and in my arms. We moved down the embankment as far as we could and were able to see that the car was not catching fire. Then a sheriff (or deputy sheriff) arrived and let me use his flashlight to call AAA. We also talked to Bern who made his way back to us with Jan in his car. (We had too many people for one car, so he had driven his Lexus and I was following him).

1 1/2 hours later the tow truck lifted my car off the mattress which immediately sprung back open and got shoved the rest of the way off the road. My car was fine, another miracle.

The next morning in my Quiet Time I gave heartfelt thanks that everything turned out the way it did. Then I realized that not only had I safely gotten my car out of a sticky situation, but had also cleanly removed the hazard from the highway. So who's prayers for safety was God really answering in that moment, ours or those of someone traveling behind us? It doesn't matter. It was God's will for things to go the way they did.

I also realized that we came very close to a very different outcome from this accident. It was sobering to think that if something worse had happened, I would still have been required to give thanks to God who is sovereign over all things in my life. The real test of my faith is in being willing to acknowledge Him as Lord in all things, even the outcomes that I don't prefer. The passengers in my car that evening know this even more intimately than I do. For their sake and the sake of their family, I was grateful that we were surrounded by grace and protection in those crazy moments on the highway.