In an Instant. Out of Nowhere.

It was dark. Pitch black. Late. Minutes before midnight. We'd been driving for almost six hours already and were only 39 miles from our destination. The country roads were flat and straight. Our lights were on bright. The girls were surprisingly still awake watching the last few minutes of a movie in the back seat. We started playing a game...."how many cars do you think we will see between here and Tulia? more than one, less than 3....ha, ha. At the same time we both glance to the left spotting the distant lights of a car on a side road, and it happened. In an instant. Out of nowhere. Before we knew what it was that caught the corner of my eye there was a crash. My hands went up and I gasped as I caught what appeared as a brick wall coming at me and down my side of the truck. We had been going 70 mph and never even had time to react by hitting the brakes or swerving. We came to a stop on the side of the road and made sure everyone was alright. Jeremy got out of the truck and walked around front to inspect the damage. I pryed my way out since my door would only open a few inches. The front passenger side of our truck was smashed in at the light and down my side but we were able to strap up the hanging parts over the tire so that we could drive. I can't believe we were able to drive away from this but we did and we turned the truck around to go back and see what we had hit assuming it was a huge deer. To our shock as we approached the scene we saw that we had actually hit a large horse. We made the girls cover up with a blanket so they wouldn't see and we pulled over. Mercifully the horse had died instantly with the impact. I don't know how we would have been able to handle it otherwise. And thanks only to God's grace and protection that horse was not any further in the road or I would not be sharing this account with you right now. My heart is racing and fingers trembling as I write those words because the reality of them has hit me deeply in the days following our accident as I've heard trajic stories of other people who have hit a horse.
When we saw what we hit I immediately called 911 and we stayed at the scene another hour and a half with the sherrif's office and state trooper filling out reports and letting them take photos. The horse had a harness and a lead on and we found out from the first responding officer that earlier that evening he had been out on a call from someone who's horse was out....he searched up and down all the roads in that area with no luck. Unfortunately we found the horse for him. I was very sad for the horse owner and their loss.

We finally made it to Jeremy's parents house and went to sleep after 2am. Thankful.

The next morning, I debated on calling my mom to tell her but knew that I had to. When I was sharing the story she stopped me and tearfully asked "what time did you say it was?" When I told her, she said, "Jackie, I couldn't sleep last night and just before midnight I had you guys on my mind and I was praying for you".

Thank you Jesus. Our lives are like a blink in time and we never know what may come from one day to the next. Thank you for being our Lord and Savior, for protecting us, loving us and providing for us in so many thousands of ways every day...some that we see and recognize and so many that we don't. We are not guaranteed any of the time we think we have ahead of us but we are guaranteed an eternity and I cannot express what peace it brings knowing that eternity will be with you.

I praise you for your everlasting goodness.



#itallbelongstoGod