IN A SPLIT SECOND.

 I could be in a number of different places right now instead of sitting here writing this blog: The emergency room, police station, hospital waiting room. . .

If in that one split second anything else had gone differently my life could be completely changed, along with my son's and the rest of my family.

The phone rang.
"Mom." "Can you come pick me up?" A shaky voice asks.
"Garrison?... What happened"?
"Someone hit my bike."
"Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm OK."  
("Are you OK?")  I hear a voice in the background.
("I didn't even see you") another voice.

"Where are you?" I ask.
"I am at the BP on Liberty Ave."
"Ok. I'll be right there"  "You should call the police and I'll be right there"
"OK"
I had to get my other son to school so I quickly get my husband and send him down there to find out what happened.

My son was clipped by a truck while riding his bike to school today.  He rode his bike along side the truck as it was making a right turn.  My son didn't see the turn signal.  The driver didn't see my son. The truck clipped his back tire. But amazingly my son was able to jump off of his bike and land on his feet.  He came away with a small scrape on his leg.

After I hadn't heard anything for a while, I called my husband to find out what was going on.  He was driving our son to school.  
And when I saw him next he was carrying the mangled bike up the steps to the front porch.

Garrison was OK.  He didn't even fall. He was spared.  It was miraculous.

This might sound melodramatic given the fact that he did come through virtually unscathed, but when I think about an accident involving a vehicle, and a truck no less, I can't help but think how things could go either way in a split second.

As I sit here writing this blog just a few hours later,  I hear the long beep of a car horn and screeching tires outside.  I listen for the crash.  Nothing.  Then the sound of a car speeding away.  Another split second.  Another instant where things could have gone much differently for someone else.

No one ever really thinks about their life in terms of split seconds.  It's really impossible on any regular basis. I hardly think about it in terms of hours.  Until you experience a very long split second.  Like my son must have or the driver of that car that almost crashed.  We have all faced situations where we experienced a very long split second.  It just makes you stop for a moment.  Your life can change in a split second. 

Thankfully for me, this time, my life didn't change that much. I am just stopping for a moment and thanking God for every split second of my life and the life of my family.

 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that." James 4:13-15

I want to take this time to savor as much as possible these split seconds of my life.  Every moment of Today.  What now seems to be turning out to be a "normal day" could have so easily been very abnormal in a split second.

Thank you Lord for that split second happening the way it did.