I was driving home from work and hadn't quite got up to full speed as the clouds burst overhead something fierce. Something like this had happened a few times before, so I didn't think much of it. All of a sudden, i felt the rubber lose touch with the road. A split second later, my car veers to the right suddenly from the right-most lane and over the slick, grassy shoulder, and all i can do is hold on. The world spins around faster than i can think, and nothing and everything passes through my mind all at once...

...the world stops moving, and i am dazed for a few seconds, realizing i am still alive and not drastically hurt. Thank God for safety belts! My car door still opens, and i get out, and walk around the car, running visual diagnostics on it and sensory diagnostics on myself. Rear seems okay, i guess. Around to the front, and oh yes, the right front panel has cracked, and the right front wheel is bent down about 20-30 degrees. I may be able to walk away from this, but I won't be driving away. The headlights and front bumper are looking pretty sad, and the left front tire has blown. I look back at the muddy tire tracks in the wet grass, and try to piece together what might have happened. Best i can figure is that the car slid over the grass into the slightly inclined rain gutter, the front of the car hit the embankment on the far side of the gutter, pivoting on the front end, kind of bouncing back out of the gutter, spinning around to face forward once again, and then rolling/skidding to a stop. Good God, it could have been so much worse.

It's still raining pretty hard, and all i can think of to do is walk back up the highway the way i came to find or call for some help. I walk a few hundred feet, and then i hear a car horn and see a red pick-up truck with a cap over the bed pull over onto the shoulder behind me. I run up to it, and its Mike, an assembly engineer from work. He asks if i'm okay, and i tell him what happened. He offers me a dry seat in his truck and the use of his cell phone. Now, you should know that one of the many family jokes of ours is our mom worrying about us while we're out and thinking that we're "in a ditch by the side of the road". So of course the first thing i do is call my mom and say, "Hey mom, guess what? I'm in a ditch by the side of the road!" and then tell her what happened and that i'm okay. I get some phone numbers from them, and then call the auto-repair shop of choice, which tells me that i should have it towed to a body shop first, so get the number a particular shop from them, call it, and get the answering machine. Giving up on that for the moment i call Rachel's cell phone and leave a voicemail. Mike drives me home, and gives me his phone number in case i need a ride to work tomorrow. Does the providence ever cease?

I walk into the kitchen and sit down in front of the phone. I try Rachel's cell again with no success, and then i call the landline at her house. While that's ringing, my folks show up on the call waiting, and i take the call. Talk to them for a few minutes, and then call the car insurance claims number and talk with a service rep or two. While i'm on hold, Rachel rings in from her house and i tell her i'll call her back. I finish with the insurance company and call Rachel back, and tell her what happened. The call waiting beeps, and its the automated notification that the tow truck will be getting to the wreck in about an hour. I flash back to Rachel, and she asks if i want her to come over, and i say "Yes, Please."

Finally off the phone, i feed the dog and turn on the evening news, wondering at it all. Rachel finally drives up with a Chik-Fil-A bag in her hand (what a woman!), and i walk out to meet her and give her a nice long hug. She asks if i'm scared, and i say, "Yeah, a little bit." We sit down at the dining room table for a minute or two, and then we go to meet the tow truck. As we're heading north on I-77, we see on the southbound side that the truck is just getting to the wreck. We get off at the next exit, and head down the freeway southbound. I walk up to the guy and give the key to the car with hands still imperceptibly shaking. He with a few words betrays himself not to be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but i trust him to do his job. Rachel comes over to survey the scene and stand next to me, and we watch this guy get his truck partially stuck in the mud while trying to do a K-turn with long truck on the shoulder. He works on this for about 10 minutes, and it starts to earnestly rain again. We go around the back of the truck back to her car, and watch somewhat amusedly as he somehow gets his truck turned around and drive off the wrong way down the shoulder into the horizon. "Well, shall we dine?" i ask, and we munch on chicken nuggets and waffle fries, basking in the existential moment.

The tow truck comes back driving the right way on the highway, and as he pulls onto the shoulder again and prepares to pull the car up onto the platform, i look up and point into the sky and say "Look," to Rachel. A rainbow is in the sky, standing in quiet glory. "And there it is", i think to myself and say to Rachel, "the sign of God's promise that everything is going to be okay." It seemed to me that God was speaking to me through his Providence: saying that he may have flooded the few square yards under my car for a few seconds -- so that i swept myself off the road in a most dramatic fashion -- but never again would He flood the earth to destroy all life. And indeed he preserved even my unworthy life in this small flood for the sake of His Son. How merciful is it that there were no other cars involved and that my car didn't flip over as it very easily could have?

We saw the truck drive back onto the highway, and then headed for the Urgent Care facility on Decker Blvd, so a doctor could check me out to make sure i was really okay. Arriving fifteen minutes before closing time, the doctor checked out my reflexes and my pupils and my range of motion, etc., and said I should be okay, though i may have to take pain-reliever for the next few days. We drove back to the house and worked on the wedding invitation list for the rest of the evening, almost as if it was a normal evening.

Heavenly Father, you are better to us than we deserve.