Grateful...

I was in an accident yesterday. I’m not sure if I should share this story, but I’m extremely grateful for the way things worked out, and it was a nice little reminder that Heavenly Father is always watching out for us.

Here’s the story:

I had gone home to pick up Jeffrey’s clothes and such for his flag football game and noticed while driving that the traffic on one of the main streets, University Avenue, was worse than usual. I started grumbling to myself as I always do while driving in Utah-I HATE HATE HATE driving here. I swear, I’ve never been around so many dumb, non-law-abiding drivers anywhere. It’s ridiculous. Anyway, that was a rant, back to the story. I decided when on my way back up to campus that instead of enduring the traffic on University, I would turn off as soon as possible and take another street.

I turned down this one street (300 S, if you’re curious) and just continued driving, minding my own business, no cars around me, when all of sudden, a car pulled out from a side street (200 N) looking to turn into the left lane going east. I was in the left lane going east. I swerved but I knew before I even heard the “pop”, the disheartening, life shattering, blood run cold “pop” from the sound of your car being hit, I knew she would hit me. We both pulled over, and I started to call Jeff, I felt so sick, and I was really scared.

You see, here’s the real quandary: I don’t have insurance. Due to issues with the title of Jeff’s car, I’ve just been waiting to get insurance until the car was in our name and Jeff and I could sign up for a plan together. Adding to this dilemma was the fact that I also don’t have a current driver's license-mine expired on my birthday (and I’ve already ranted about Utah drivers so don’t get me started on the idiocy of the DMV and government agency daily hours of operation). Basically, this accident was a NIGHTMARE. One we had worried over, but were too complacent with our current conveniences to really do anything about. I was looking at jail time for driving without insurance, and not having a license sure wasn’t going to give me a low bail.

But when I got out of the car to survey the damage, I had to put my call to Jeff on hold. I couldn’t believe my eyes; I remember thinking: “Did she really hit me? I know she hit me…” There was little to no damage. The driver’s side bumper was scratched up and her green car paint was smeared on it a bit, and the bumper had been concaved-not dented-just barely popped out of the car (we’re talking like a centimeter, possible a half centimeter of poppage). I was so relieved! An just kept staring at the car in disbelief. Her car was essentially undamaged as well, and we were both driving our husband’s cars, so we decided to just go our own ways.

Now you know why I had some qualms about sharing this story, and some of you may think that there is little to be grateful for-the car is still damaged, the other driver got away without being punished for her bad driving, the general illegal-ness of the whole situation-but I am grateful. Grateful that I’m not in jail. Grateful that I’m not hurt. Grateful to not be paying hefty fines I cannot afford. Grateful that the car will be still look and function just fine without paying to have the small damages fixed. Grateful that even when we’ve been consistently irresponsible and thoughtless in the things we ought to do as good, law-abiding citizens, the Lord will still look out for us, because He loves us and does not want us to suffer.

I’m treating this experience as a nice little hint, and I have officially stopped driving and am in the process of getting car insurance with USAA.