7quick takes, volume 090403: the we should have been dead edition

Why does a good God allow bad things to happen?  I submit to you that an awful lot of the time he doesn't, and we don't even bother to notice.  God reaches down and protects us, and we call it luck, or just take for granted that nothing bad should have happened.  Yesterday, as my family and I were driving the three hour trip from Indianapolis home to northern Indiana, we saw not one but two accidents involving overturned semi-trucks.  And we pray for travelling mercies so carelessly . . .

Thinking about this today, I realized that I can easily think of two or three incidents for each member of my immediate family--my mom, dad, brother and I--when we easily could have died and didn't.  Seven quick takes:  the our-lives-are-riddled-with-miracles edition.

1.  I was ten years old.  My dad and I, ignorant Midwesterners, were playing on a snowfield in the Colorado Rockies.  We slipped and tumbled down a very steep grade into a whole lot of huge boulders at the bottom.  Result:  Bruises for us both, and a concussion for me.

2.  When my parents were newly married their new, nifty little compact was slammed into at an intersection by a much larger truck.  The car was totalled.  If my mom had been wearing her seatbelt, she would have died.  For some reason she wasn't, and was just fine.

3.  My brother, last year, swinging from a rope swing while camping and the knot gave.  He landed flat on his back from 8-10 feet in the air.  Result:  not paralysis or death, but concussion and slight memory loss.

4.  Me, hiking on Isle Royale National Park, a four hour boatride from anything, let alone medical care.  I walked over a hornet's nest.  Got stung.  I'd never been stung before and didn't know what it was--stood there, trying to figure it out, until my dad shouted at me to run.  Some three dozen stings, all up in my shirt.  Good thing I didn't turn out to be allergic to stings.

5.  My brother, again, his senior year in high school.  Driving home through the country, at a rural train crossing without lights or gates or anything.  Accidentally ran the stop sign and made it across in front of the train by about 10 feet.

6.  Me and my mother, when I was four years old.  She was driving my friend and I home from preschool when a sixteen year old driver ran a red light and slammed straight into us.  None of us more than shook up.  (Additional minor miracle/grace of God for this incident:  the accident happened right in front of the house of a nice young mom who invited my friend and I in to watch Sesame Street with her daughter while my mom dealt with the police.  The whole scene is one of my more vivid early memories.)

7.  My brother in college, trying to cross the street back to his dorm with a pizza for dinner.  Hit by car.  Result:  several stitches across the back of his scalp.  And yes, the pizza was fine.  But pretty cold when he and his girlfriend finally got to eat it three hours later.

Lord Jesus, thank you for all the ways that you sustain us that we don't even know about.  Thank you for all the times when it could have been so much worse, and wasn't.    Help us remember that that's you.

7 quick takes hosted by Jennifer at Conversion Diary