Is This Real Life?

I had a missed call form my mom Tuesday morning. She left a voicemail. My excited mood about classes being cancelled for the day immediately switched to a building concern for my family.

I called my mom and she told me that the giant, sixty-year-old oak tree in the front yard had smashed into the front of our house. I thought a walk outside would calm my nerves until I got the sudden urge to get my book bag and head home.

In the car, I promised Jesus that those songs I was singing to Him in the shower that morning were still true. Joy overcame me. I rolled down the windows and sang along with Mac Powell on my first Third Day CD. That sense of peace was strong until I drove down my road and saw a picture that was worse than what I had imagined.

I swallowed my emotions back down and pulled into my neighbors drive way to see Mom, Dad, and Reid.

The rest of the day, I don't know how, but I was okay. I was there to help my family do practical stuff like pack up mom's jewelry, towels, shampoo, medicine, move dad's guitars, call the car rental people and insurance adjuster--the stuff that took a load off my dad's shoulders.

Sometimes, I'd stop and think about how the tree was angled perfectly so that Mom would be spared... so that Dad and Reid were spared. That was God. I knew it. Then I stopped my self from crying tears of enormous thankfulness to God's obvious hand against Satan's plan to make me an orphan.

God... thank you. So much.