Jesus before coffee: March 2020

This is kind of a long one so grab a cup of coffee and settle in, I promise it is miraculous and worth the read.

About 2 weeks ago things got flipped upside down for my family. Literally. This particular Tuesday morning was cold, there was ice on the cars outside and the roofs of the houses in our neighborhood. The roads were dry and seemingly clear. I was enjoying the beauty of the cold winter morning and the frosty ice on the surrounding fields. We carpool with our friends that are also our neighbors so I picked up their little girl along with my two kids and we headed to school. We were driving our usual route when without warning we were completely out of control. I must have hit black ice because suddenly I heard gravel under my tires and realized we were headed into the ditch. We live out in grass seed farming country so all the country roads have deep ditches. I quickly turned the wheel hard left to avoid the ditch and ended up heading across the road toward the other ditch. I over corrected again pulling the wheel right and felt my van begin to teeter side to side. Next thing I knew we were rolling. We hit on the passenger side first, blowing out all the windows, next we rolled on top toward the front of the van and I felt my head hit the top of the van. The movement was harsh and loud. I could hear glass shattering all around us and the sound of metal grinding on the pavement. Then out of nowhere, whoosh... a smooth pick up and we were on our tires, still on the road! We had rolled a full rotation. We had not been air born, there was not enough momentum for that and I felt the intense crash of the right side and top of the van, yet somehow the driver side never hit the ground.

When we landed my car was on it’s wheels and still running, the girls in the back were still screaming so I knew they were conscious. I looked over at my son, he appeared to be o.k. too. I turned off the van and tried to calm the girls down asking if everyone was alright, I looked at my son and said “I don’t know where my phone is but we need to call 911”. He immediately started looking for my phone and found it under some debris and glass right by his feet. He picked it up, called 911 and began talking to the operator, telling them where we were and what had happened. I got the girls out of the van and safe to the side of the road. I took over the phone call and my son took over keeping the girls calm.

(Can we pause for a minute to celebrate how brave my 12 year old is? Proudest Mom moment. He saw a need and stepped into action, taking the lead and staying calm the whole time. He did not cry until I gave him a hug and told him how proud I was of him and thanked him for helping me. He is a hero.)

After we got off the phone with 911 a friend of ours happened to be cleaning stalls at a nearby barn that morning and drove past us on her way home. She stopped and pulled up behind us letting the kids sit in her truck where it was safe and warm. What a blessing she was to us that morning.

As emergency response showed up I told them what happened. They checked everyone out. No one was severely injured. I had small cuts on my hands from getting the girls out of the van and pulling some of our stuff out but not a scratch from the actual accident. The roof had caved in on the side of the van where my son was sitting. Glass had shattered all over him yet he didn't have a single scratch, just a bruise on his knee from the glove box. Our friends little girl had a cut on her elbow, she was in a booster seat which elevated her to window height and she had caught her elbow on the jagged glass in the window after we rolled. She was so brave. The cut needed a couple stitches but it was a minor injury considering the crash we all had been through and how much worse it could have and should have been. My daughter and I were a little sore on our shoulders and I had a bruised elbow but not a single one of us ended up bruised from the seat belt straps or seriously injured. Amazing.

The Sheriff came on the scene and I explained what had happened. He kept looking at the van and the spot where we had rolled. I could see the confusion on his face. Where we had landed on the road made absolutely no sense with the spot where we rolled. The damage on the vehicle also made no sense, the whole driver side was undamaged except the mirror. The fact that there was shattered glass and flying debris all over the van as we rolled yet no one was hurt, again made no sense. As I talked to the sheriff he asked me “You landed like that?” “Yes” I said, “ You landed like that, on your wheels? And stayed on the road? That doesn’t happen.” “I know, The Lord miraculously protected us” I told him. Logic and statistics says we should have landed upside down or on the driver side in the ditch and been severely hurt or worse. But God… he is a good good Father, a protector who defies logic and statistics.

As we left the scene of the wreck I realized how disoriented I was. Our van had turned a complete 180 degrees without my knowing, where we landed was backwards from the direction we had been headed. Backward... set on our wheels, staying on the road the whole time yet we were about 50 feet back from where we rolled. Again, it all made no sense. It was at that moment I began to put all the pieces together realizing multiple angels had been sent to protect us. Angels had picked up the van and set us on the road, it was the ONLY explanation for the smooth “whoosh” movement I had felt and the reason the left side of the van was not damaged. More angels had held us firmly in our seats and covered us, shielding us from the glass and flying debris. My son’s door had flown open during the flip, purses and backpacks had been thrown from the vehicle through the window, full metal water bottles flew around in the van and the middle console which is big, heavy and unattached could have easily come off the floor and hit one of the kids or myself but did not. As I have gone back and looked at the photo’s I am completely baffled, the damage just doesn’t make any sense. That is how the miraculous works though, it is not explainable and this whole thing was completely miraculous.

We lived Psalm 91 that day… February 18th, 2020.... Mine and my husbands 15th wedding anniversary. “For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.”

I am a BIG believer in the power of the testimony. It gives us the opportunity to live our faith out loud. Testimony changes people, it gives them faith to believe in the impossible and the opportunity to share in the miraculous that God is doing in the lives of those around them and believe it for their own lives. With that said, I believe there are some of you reading this that question the supernatural. You question if we have an open heaven over us. You question what heaven invading earth looks like and what the bible means when it says we are “entertaining angels” (Hebrews 13:2). I’m here to tell you it looks like this. Sometimes it is much more subtle and easy to miss. Whether circumstances are big and have you upside down with angels or small and someone pay’s for your coffee on a day when you really needed some kindness, I am convinced angelic encounters are far more numerous than we realize. So if your not sure heaven is invading earth; be sure. If you have a hard time believing angelic encounters happen; believe. I share this story as a testimony to our unbelievably good God, he took what the enemy meant for harm and destruction and made a miracle happen defending and protecting the whole way.

I would encourage you today to take a minute and think about the times in your life where maybe you were entertaining angels without even knowing it. Where has the miraculous been at work in your life and your chalked it up to “luck”? God is always, only good and whether we see it or not he is at work in our lives.