God's handprint

July 28th, 2001 was the day that changed our lives. Doug, my husband, had dropped the kids off at his parent’s house. His nephew was going to watch the kids while he ran a few errands. I was at work when I received a call from Doug. His sister had bumped into Trent, our 1 ½ year old, with her car but that he was ok. He said he was on the way back up there, I told him to call me back and keep me updated. When Doug got there he grabbed Trent and started checking him over as they told him what had happened.

Trent had been in the house when his sister went to leave. While she and her husband were in the car talking he had come outside and gotten behind the car. She started to back up when she felt a bump; not realizing Trent had gotten behind the car she continued to back up. She felt the right rear tire go up and over something. That something was Trent. Her son ran over screaming that she had just run over Trent. Her son pulled Trent from under the car and embraced him.

Doug called me back very upset; he told me that his sister had accidentally backed over our son. Doug told me he was rushing Trent over to the emergency room to have him checked out. I called over to the building next door to where I worked, Doug’s mom worked there. I told her what had happened and that I needed to use her van to meet Doug at the hospital.

I was in a daze as I drove to the hospital. Every thought that was possible raced through my mind in slow motion. When I arrived at the hospital the chaplain of the hospital met me at the door. My first thought was this couldn’t be good. She said that he was in the trauma room and that he was doing ok. I found Doug in the hallway in tears. We walked over to the room Trent was in, there was so many staff in the room I could hardly see my baby. All I could hear were a few cries. They had to sedate him to do a cat scan to check for internal injuries. The nurses were out reassuring us that he was going to be ok and telling us what they were doing step by step.

The rear tire had gone over his abdomen and pelvic area and down on his wrist. You could see the tire marks on his shirt. The thought of this little boy that weighed 25 pounds at the most and having the weight of a car go over his mid section just took my breath away and made my heart ache. I prayed harder than I had ever prayed before. All of the family was there and the pastor from his parent’s church arrived. We all went into the quiet room and prayed with each other, some then on their own.

The doctors couldn’t find any major injuries, just a few bruises and scrapes. They kept him in pediatric ICU overnight for observation. The nurses, the doctors, and all of us couldn’t believe this child came out of this with out injuries. There was no doubt that God had laid his hands upon our son when the car backed over him. The next day he was released to go home, as we talked about what happened and were looking at Trent we noticed some small bruises. One was a small bruise on his hip and four little dot size bruises on his ribs. One was a small bruise on his hip and four little dot size bruises on his ribs. A true sign that God’s hand had covered our son and protected him from the car.

At the time the accident happened, Doug and I were having troubles in our marriage. The accident drew us close and started the process of rebuilding our relationship with each other and with Christ. Our kid’s were active in church with Doug’s parents but we hadn’t been active in church. We now, like a newfound love, attend faithfully and live by the word of Christ. Not only had the God protected our son but also with his other hand he had reached out to us and lead us back to Christ. With Christ in our lives everything is new, refreshed and we have a whole new perspective on life.

To those who read this, please don’t wait till a traumatic experience brings you closer to Christ. We now know it really is true that Christ can work wonders in your life - he is LIFE!! Without Christ, life is really meaningless - We wish everyone could know him and realize that life without him is nothing but existing!!! Embrace him now and feel his grace and comfort.