What God did:
I had a car accident Monday.
I have known since the accident that it could have been much worse than it was.
There was a car in front of me stopped and turning left.
There was a car coming up beside us.
I stopped behind the car in front of me and looked into my rearview mirror.
I see a friend.
He is looking straight at me.
I know him.
He is not slowing down.
My body could have been in the ground now for 3 days.
Instead, I got up this morning and folded clothes, fertilized my Hummingbird vines, invited two neighborhood boys to church, prepared to teach Sunday School, and have had conversations with precious friends about what God is doing in our lives. We shared verses with one another and rejoiced in the Lord.
I also thought about how I could have left my daughter without her mother 3 weeks from her graduation.
While on the phone with Lynne, I went over the wreck again with her.
I told her I realize it could have been worse but what was the purpose? Why is my car smashed and my back and neck hurting? I’m so glad to be here but what was the point of all of this frustration?

Many of you know God made it very clear to me last year that Psalm 23:4 is a verse I must hide in my heart. That verse has come continuously to me throughout the last year. I had 12 losses from 2000 to 2006 through divorces and death. I look back and see where God was with me through it all. Psalm 23:4 has applied many times in my life. When asking Lynne why all of this happened, I realized Psalm 23:4 happened.

Why God did it:
This accident was God demonstrating Psalm 23:4 in a vivid way. It was so that I would feel His words through that verse as they are applied to my life. Not as I overlook years of struggle but in an instant God’s word applied to everything.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death”
Even though I drove into what could have been death for me.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death”
That experience was a shadow of death experience.
My appendix “almost” rupturing was a shadow of death experience.
Valleys.
A valley to remind me that He said “Because you are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you” Isaiah 43:4
God reminded me that He loves me.

“I will fear no evil, for you are with me:”
God was absolutely, without a doubt, with me during that accident.
I had a keen sense like I have never had before.
I knew exactly what was going on beside me with the car driving by, in front of me with the car stopped and turning, and behind me that he was coming and not slowing down.
It was never a “what just happened?” experience. I knew exactly what was going on the entire time as if I was watching a movie.
Because I knew he was coming and not slowing, I prepared to act quickly. I saw the car drive by and knew there was nothing I could do until he went by and allowed the car in front of me to turn.
As soon as he turned, I hit the gas.
This allowed me not to be sandwiched between the two cars.
Allowed the car beside us and in front not to be involved at all.
It lessened the impact because I moved further away and had my foot on the gas instead of the break.
He was with me. God reminded me that He is with me.

“Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
A shepherd uses a rod and staff or a crook to steady his steps onto solid ground.
He leads the sheep along the hilly, unknown terrain and uses the staff to remind the sheep to stay on the right path; the path he has chosen as the secure one for them. The crook in the staff is to pull the sheep by the neck when they go astray.
His rod and staff were with me.
He sent His Holy Spirit to give me a keen sense of what was going on around me.
His rod and staff were with me.
He directed my every move and pulled me away from what could have been a death trap.
He took the crook of His staff and pulled me from the middle of those two cars.
He lessened the impact.
He reminded me that He protects me and is always with me.

Who God did it through:
“They comfort me”
His rod and staff comforted me, His Holy Spirit was with me, but He also sent His love through His people.
He sent a comforting hand to hold my hand as they took me from the ambulance.
He comforted me through friends and family who rushed to be by my side.
He revealed the depth of love of a precious friend.

Where God is now:
He is with me and is revealing Himself to me as I am blessed with the privilege of speaking once again to each of you.

When God does things:
When God reveals Himself in these ways it causes us to know Him better. To glorify Him.
I realized today that out of the 12 losses it is not one of them, or all of them collectively, that have brought me the most pain and sadness in my life. What brings me the most sadness is that I have wasted too many days of my life not glorifying and praising the Lord who is my Shepherd.
Glory to God for the great things He has done.
The Lord is my Shepherd.

Copyright Kim Crawford 2009