Miracle Story #9
- One Million Miracles
- Jan 6, 2017
- 3 min read
“I was on the east side of town, getting ready to head west. My daughter Ari was four years old at the time and she was sitting in the back seat, on the driver’s side. Seatbelts were required back then but she was big enough that she no longer had to be in a car seat.
I came up to the light and stopped. And when it turned green, I was getting ready to step on the gas and go.
But right then, as clear as day, a voice in my car said, “Don’t. Don’t go.”
It was so quick but I remember thinking, ‘It’s green, I can go.’
And so I went to step on the gas but again, I heard, “Don’t!”
I hesitated for just a second. And at that very moment, a semi truck ran a red light at a high rate of speed.
Had I gone, my daughter, who is now twenty, and I would not be here. There is no way we would still be alive.
We would’ve been T-boned by that semi. He didn’t even hesitate. He just kept going.
It was broad daylight and I don’t know if the guy driving the truck was just tired, or not paying attention or what, but I know it would’ve ended our lives. And it probably would’ve ruined his.
I immediately just broke down and started crying.
And my daughter Ari said to me from the back seat, in the sweetest little voice, “Mommy, we almost just died, didn’t we?”
And I said, “Yeah baby, we did. But God saved us.”
And she remembers it to this day.
* * * * *
It was authoritative, like your parent telling you ‘No’ when you’re a kid. Like when they used to say things like, “Don’t touch that or you’ll get burned.” It was that intense of a voice.
My thought when I first heard it was basically, ‘I’m an adult and I have the green light,’ like a rebellious thing. And then I heard it again. And it was that simple.
It struck me and I hesitated. And I wasn’t going to hesitate, I was going to go before I heard that.
Life-changing to say the least.
I think He gives you what it is that you need. Some people aren’t as stubborn as I am. (laughs)
So he was like, ‘Listen to me.’
It kind of brings to mind the scripture in the Bible about the sparrow. The scripture that says that if He’s protecting the sparrow, how much more does he love you?
I was just going about my daily business with my little girl in the car and He knew what we needed.
He’s watching over me. He’s watching over my little girl. He’ll get serious if He has to. Like I said, I was sitting there as an adult, arguing for that second. Because I had the right. I had the green light.
It also reminded me that I have a mission. And I’m still trying to figure that out. But there is a reason that my daughter and I are still supposed to be here.
What would’ve happened? What would’ve been lost?
If I had died, I wouldn’t have been there to raise my kids. I had four children under the age of eight that I was responsible for raising at that time.
What lessons have I helped maybe teach them that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to teach them?
There is so much that that moment taught me. It also taught me to listen. That yes, I’m an adult. But I’m still a child in that sense.
That was a big one for me because I’m kind of a proud person. I think if it had just been me in the car when it had happened, I would’ve just been like, ‘Wow, that was really a close call.’
But my daughter was there and that absolutely made all the difference.
And the fact that she knew it.
And at twenty years of age, she still knows it.”
*Since the recording of this story, Rachel has gone on to co-found a non-profit organization that serves the needy in the Wichita, KS area. www.iamwichitashomeless.org
© 2017 by One Million Miracles. All Rights Reserved.
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My name is Rachel, and I live in Wichita, Kansas.
In the midst of nearly being hit by a semi truck with my daughter in the car,
I AM miracle story #9.