Life
Experiences of Bill McDonald
From the Book
"A Spiritual Warrior's Journey"
The Car Crash That Never Happened
I remember
the moment as if it were yesterday, but I still do not understand what happened
or why. If there had been no other witnesses to what happened that day, I would
be questioning myself about what I thought I saw.
Let me start at the beginning of this story. My work as a senior
safety specialist with the USPS (United States Postal Service) took me to the
little valley town of Modesto, California. I went there with Sam, a fellow
safety specialist and good friend. Sam was driving about 45 miles per hour in
our government staff car as we headed down a busy street on our way to one of
the post offices across town. Everything seemed normal and ordinary that
morning.
When we entered the middle of an intersection, a large 24-foot
recreational vehicle turned directly across our path. It must have happened very
fast, but at the time, it all seemed to be in slow motion. It felt like several
minutes for us to move forward just a few feet.
I remember looking directly into the eyes of the RV driver as we
were just a few feet from impacting the front section of his traveling home. I
could see there was no way to avoid a major collision. At our speed, we were
certain to be seriously injured or worse. I was an expert on safety and knew
from my years of accident investigations that this was going to be a bad crash.
There was no time for Sam to brake or slow down.
I was frozen with anticipation of what was supposed to happen next.
What is odd is that everything should have been happening in mere hundredths of
a second. But, I seemed to have had plenty of time to think, and all I could
think of was God's love. As we reached the point where the two vehicles should
have impacted, the RV disappeared from our view. We passed directly through
where it should have been on the road, and we were instantly past the point of
collision. We looked back to see that the RV was now on the other side of the
road.
Sam made a quick U-turn and headed back to where the RV driver was
pulling into a parking lot to get his breath back. We pulled up next to him and
sat there for a few moments looking at each other before we got out of the car.
We asked the RV driver if he had seen what we thought we had witnessed. We all
agreed that we should have hit in that intersection. We all should have been
either killed or injured, not standing in the parking lot safe and unscratched.
The driver of the RV confirmed that he thought it was impossible for
us to have not hit the side of his RV. We all agreed there was no way it could
have been avoided—but it didn't happen! The driver said he saw us; in fact, he
had been looking directly into my eyes. The next thing he knew was that his RV
was out of the way. It was as if we had passed directly through where he was, he
said.
Sam and I sat in the car for a few minutes gathering our thoughts.
We both knew from all of our training and experience that what had happened was
not explainable, nor were there any logical reasons for it. It was a moment in
our lives that defied time and space. It was as if we had gone through the RV or
it had jumped out of our way. In either case, we felt that there were powers at
work in the universe that had saved us from a terrible fate. I felt that God was
once again protecting me, and I felt blessed to have experienced this moment. It
truly was a gift.
#
Copyright
1998 - W. H. McDonald Jr.
