It had taken around an hour to get to my destination, and I expected it to be the same on the return trip. I texted my daughters and let them know what time to expect me. About 20 minutes into the drive traffic ground to a halt. As sirens sounded in the distance and ambulance and police cars arrived it was evident there was an accident ahead. The seriousness of it became clear as drivers turned off their engines, leaving their cars, walking ahead to get a better view of what had happened, and reports began to trickle back. There was no doubt that traffic was not going to be moving for a while.
Two men returning from the scene said that a mother with two children had crashed into a bank. One of the children was in critical condition, and one of the victims was trapped inside the car. She had been coming from the opposite direction and, for whatever reason, veered across the lane and collided with the rock wall.
My daughters were informed of the delay via another text, and the waiting began. After almost an hour, they opened up the highway to one lane of traffic. It was then I realized this accident had happened right ahead of me, not more than 1/4 mile at most, just around the corner. There were no more than eight cars between me and the crash. Driving past the mangled chunk of metal that barely resembled a car, I was sobered. Lives forever changed in a split second.
I drove home in that frame of mind, the beauty that is the McKenzie River never registering. I remembered having stopped to take the picture of the covered bridge. It took less than a minute. If I had not stopped, that span of time would probably have put me and my truck in proximity to that careening vehicle. Do I know that for an absolute fact? It isn't so much an argument of fact as it is a sense. I don't make those things up.
Why is one spared and another isn't? Why am I able to say a covered bridge picture may have been what saved me from a terrible accident and yet there is another family experiencing suffering and pain at this very moment? I have no easy answer. My daughter expressed it well: "I'm thankful too (for you) and feel horrible for the family that is dealing with it."
We all experience hard times and, without making light, being facetious, or trite, there is absolutely nothing easy about them. The very use of the word "accident," with its connotation of chance, is a misnomer. It is my belief that nothing is random, coincidental, or happenstance and that there is point and purpose to all things. Easy? No. Does it always make sense, and do we have understanding? No. And most often not at all in the beginning, in the initial phases of those experiences. Part of a greater plan? Yes.
My heart goes out to a mother, those two children, and the many whose lives have been changed by a drive up the McKenzie River. Each of us is like a rock thrown in water, the concentric circles reaching out and touching others, whether on a personal level or in anonymity. Our lives impact others on so many levels, whether we know it and realize it or not. I know mine has been by a young woman I don't even know.
"All things are of Him, by Him, and through Him."
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