I am reposting an old post from several years ago that I had blogged on another website of mine. Regardless of it's age, it is one that impacted me forcifully enough then that it still stays on my mind, thus still affecting my thoughts... AND my walk (wow, now that's big!). Today, I thought I'd dig it up and repost it again here. I hope it smacks a punch to you and says something huge to you as well as it did to me when it first spoke.
The Cutest Thing on the Road
The police officer told her, "I have to say, you did good."
Her mouth dropped open in total confusion as she quickly looked up at him in her wonder. While blackened tears from non-waterproofed mascara streaked down her face she asked him, "Sir?"
And he said, "Well, if you're going to do it, you might as well do it big. In all the years I’ve worked as a police officer, I have never seen a wreck like this one. I’ve never seen a Bug hit another car so hard that it sent the vehicle it ran into plowing under the car in front of it leaving its two back wheels spinning in total suspension." Then he looked at her and gave a crooked nod as he said it again, "You did a good job."
It was almost dark and raining. We had both left the school at the same time - following each other. She was behind me. But when I moved over to the left lane she passed me. She was anxious to get home, her boyfriend was coming over. I lost her in the traffic. Yet just a mile up the road from where I'd last seen her, I found her waiting on me. Crying in the rain… with a banged up vehicle. Looking horrified and pitiful. Both her and her Bug. The airbags had ejected. Steam was rising in a major smoke from her Bug’s engine. Tears streamed down her face. A black car smashed (from both behind and in front) was sitting in front of hers. And a white car jacked up on top of the black one was in the air with its hind-wheels still rolling.
No one was hurt. But it did some major damage to some vehicles! I am so thrilled with the God Who takes care of our babies.... Because if it weren't for Him........................ (I don’t even want to think about it!)
That was yesterday.
Here's my today....
I babysat and spent most of my day on the phone talking between this person and that about Prissy's accident or about transportation of some sort. It's been overly ridiculous. Mostly a good day though.... but a constant one.
Tonight as I type my face is furrowed from a frown... distressing and sad........ I'm lamenting and grieving, mourning over a Pink piece of metal even while I am so very thankful that my daughter was spared (as well as the other drivers!) and after I have just posted a blog today that talks about our dancing and our not living in our wail. After all, Prissy's not left paralyzed from the neck down, nor with the rare dreaded locked-in syndrome disease that leaves you only left blinking (that’s a whole other story!). So, though I'm sad, I feel awfully guilty for being so... because I am really, really, really thankful too! Yet still my heart hurts about it. They called this afternoon to tell us that our squished bug was totaled.
"I don't want 'em to total it!"
I bet I've said that a thousand times since I heard that they were. Since then, a furrowed brow has stayed on my face, because I really don't want them to total it! It was so blooming cute. I mean, had someone even bothered to take an aerial shot last night as proof of our collision in the rain in the midst of all the night's traffic... even with her eyes knocked out and her looking so doleful and dismal, she was the cutest thing on the road. There she was standing out like a sore thumb dressed in her Pepto-Bismol pink with PRISSSY splashed across the tag on her tail with a smashed in face and getting drenched in the rain and yet she still looked pretty. Ditzy maybe? Or as if her eyes were spinning from the blow? Maybe dis-spirited is the word I am looking for? Disheartened, and with the wind completely knocked out of her. But still, she sat there looking so innocent and girly and so preciously sweet. Looking rather sad from the blow of her moment, but still fun. When the police officer got there and as he was getting out of his car even he couldn't help but smile as he walked up to her wanting to know who PRISSSY was.
Awww, I don't want 'em to total it!
But it's just a car. Metal and money. Nothing that'll matter in the end. Not something we'll take with us when we go, or even want to. We won't even long for it or miss it. Never give it a second thought even.
How easy it is for us to mourn our stuff. Sometimes we'll mourn more about our stuff than for people. We'll mourn more over our wrecked cars than the wrecked lives living right in front of us with smashed in faces, eyes bulging out, steam rising from their engines - from the wrecks they've made of their lives. "It's their fault," we'll think, "so why should we care?" “They’ve made their own bed, now let ‘em lie in it.” “They should have thought of the consequences before they decided to do that.” “They should have known better!” “They could have made better choices!”
Last night it was Prissy's fault too, but she really didn't mean to. It wasn't her purpose. It wasn't her plan. It wasn’t something she set out to do. She just wanted to hurry home to get to someone that she thinks 'loves' her. Never thinking that going too fast on a rainy night on a slippery road with lots of traffic might change her plans and could have hurt someone else on her way or killed herself in the process. It was her fault, but how can you blame her?
We often get mad and frustrated and impatient with those that have made such a mess of their lives. They shouldn’t have done the thing that they've done! And just look at how many other people they've hurt along their journey! Not caring what their recklessness might do to the ones closest to them in their paths. In their hurry to somewhere to find 'love' or acceptance or to find filling to fulfill an empty feeling, they'll drive too fast, on rainy nights, on slippery roads, with lots of traffic...... and they'll wreck their lives which leaves their faces smashed in, their eyes red-eyed and bulging, steaming rising from the heat in their engines, eyes spinning from the blow, dis-spirited... disheartened.... and we won't see innocent and girly and preciously sweet hidden beneath their wreck. Instead, the wreck of their lives that wrecked into ours leaves the heat in our own engines rising, our own eyes red-eyed and bulging, our own faces screwed in a furious mean at what they've done and the pain that they've caused us. And we won't see our own wrecked selves from scowling at their wreck. And then, how dare they come and park their wrecked thing in front of our house after they’ve made such a mess of it!
It makes for a vicious cycle.
Who's wrecked in front of you, or wrecked into your world? Who's the guy or the girl in your life whose life looks totally wrecked and messed up to you? If someone had bothered to take an aerial picture as proof of their collision in the dark of their night in the midst of all of that traffic - what would you see in its picture? Will you see innocent and girly and preciously sweet hidden somewhere way beneath their wreck? Or more importantly yet, if God had taken an aerial picture of the "wrecked," what would He see? And do we look and see the same picture that He does?
Prissy was appalled and her feelings were tremendously hurt that her brakes seem to fail her when she slammed them after she realized that she was about to wreck and had to stop; but instead it sent her wheels skidding on the slippery road right into its target because she'd attempted to stop too late and the tires failed to ever gain traction. It's that way with sin too, once we waken to the horror of where our ‘wheels’ (wills!) are headed. It's oft times too late when we slam on our brakes, because we've been traveling too fast, for far too many nights, on slippery roads with too much traffic. And we slide right into it! We wreck! Wounding ourselves and many others around us.
Remember the story of the Good Samaritan? (Luke10:25-37) What do you do with the man that you pass by on the side of the road that's been robbed and beaten and left for dead? Do you bother to stop and help him? Or do you pass by the wreck that they’ve made of themselves… because after all, they caused it!? In all honesty, it truly is their fault! It is the obvious consequences of their choices! They were warned. They knew better. But need we be reminded of the fact that Jesus died for us - not after we'd cleaned up our wrecks - but while we were still living as sinners (Romans5:8).
The insurance company called me just a few minutes ago. I asked the girl about it. She said that normally they total a car when the damage is 75% of the car's worth. Prissy's was a $1,000 over a 100%. Well still..................................
I asked her what they would do with it. She told me that they would take it to a salvage yard to park it. Where someone would buy it and if they think that might be able to make some money off of it, they'll work on it to fix it up. If not, they'll strip it for parts and crush the rest.
That sounds HORRID, doesn't it? I hate the idea even of it having to sit in a junk yard among the damaged and wrecked and unloved and unwanted..... And then to think of them striping… then crushing her! It just sounds so ungrateful and ugly and mean! As silly as it sounds, I feel so guilty about it!
WOE though, when we leave the ‘wrecked’ (the robbed and beaten and left for dead) and walk on by… deeming them not ‘worth it’ to us. ‘Totaling’ them with our actions! The enemy uses the wrecked! If there is still anything that he thinks salvable, he’ll use their ‘vehicles’ to make ‘money’ for him! Or, if too broken, too wrecked, too damaged, too unwanted and too unloved; he leaves them ‘parked’ in some junk yard (possibly some prison), until he’s stripped them completely. Then, he’ll simply (and gladly) crush the rest!
What will you do? Will you just write the wrecked off as 'Totaled' too, because in your estimation it will cost more to fix him/her than he/she's really worth it to you? Too much time! Too much effort! Too much heart-ache! Too hard! Too aggravating! Too much work! Too much money! Might you hear God repeating the same words to you about that wrecked one's life that I've been repeating about a pink metal bug, "Aw, don't total her! I don't want 'em to total her! She’s worth it to Me!" (1John3:16).
That wrecked person you know was worth it to Him, but do you count her worth it to you? Or, do you not even see her? Had you rather leave her thrown into the junk yard where she’ll be stripped for parts and then crushed with what’s left? Do you get more upset over the worthless? the metal? the money? the stuff? or how much it’ll cost to fix them instead, and decide the cost is more than you’re willing to spend? After all, just as the enemy uses the enemy for bad; God uses the ‘wrecked’ too… after He’s invested His life in order to save them… ransom, redeem, restore and renew them… only God doesn’t use them for bad, God makes new and uses them only for good!
Passed any wrecks along your way in your world lately? What's the "cutest thing" to you "on your road”?
© Sharon Lee - February 2, 2007
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