AN ANSWER FOR THE REASON OF MY HOPE

Peter 3:15 says, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asked you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear”

One brisk November evening, a good friend of mine stopped by for a visit because it was her birthday. We sat and chatted for a while when she asked if I would accompany her to the store on the corner. I bundled my daughter and myself up and we headed to the store. We were stepping out of the main lobby of my building when I jumped back inside, closed my eyes and prayed a simple prayer that God watch over us, keep us safe and covered in HIS precious blood.  My friend Kisha realizing that I was not behind her doubled back to see where I was and when she realized that I was praying, sucked her teeth and said “Damn, you’re praying just to go to the store.”  I smiled and simply replied “Yes.”

We were at the end of the parking lot when I heard a loud screech. Suddenly my daughter was thrust out of my hand with so much force that my back twisted and a sharp pain shot through my body from the back of my neck all the way down my legs. My daughter had been struck by a car and was caught under the two back wheels of this huge old school Cadillac.  Kisha, realizing what happened, ran to flag down a police car that was on the next corner. The driver was trying to floor his gas pedal to get away and since my daughter was caught under the back wheel he threw the car in reverse to get unstuck and continued to roll over my child. I watched in horror, while unsuccessfully attempted to pull her from under the huge vehicle. The driver threw the car back in drive and tried to speed out of the parking lot; luckily the police had boxed him in and forced him to get out of the vehicle.

The man stumbled out of the vehicle clearly intoxicated, yelling and cursing at the police who had their guns drawn.  The police ran over to me and told me not to touch my daughter. She was lying on the ground with thread marks going across her Black leather shear ling coat. She was crying and visibly upset. When the ambulance arrived they placed her in a tiny stretcher and attempted to thoroughly check her out. To our surprise, she did not have a scratch on her entire body. The paramedics couldn’t believe it! When we arrived at the hospital, the doctors ran several tests for internal bleeding and continued to run CAT scans but they found nothing.  Each doctor that would come into the room would ask to see the coat that she was wearing to confirm that she had been hit.

In the waiting room Kisha, who was unaware that my daughter was alright, and was totally upset. She said “I can’t believe that this is happening. A whole lot of good you’re praying did! Why didn’t God prevent that from happening? She’s only three years old, the littlest one of us all, if he didn’t protect her, what makes you think he’ll protect you? I’ve never been to church and you go all the time so if God is so good why do the worst things happen to his people? If the bible says that God does so much, how come the people who serve him their lives are so messed up?”  I replied “Kisha God is mathematically unsound. A car weighing 2000lbs ran over my baby who is only a little over 30lbs and she doesn’t have a scratch on her.  Bad things are going to happen because God has given us free will, and some use that will to do all manner of evil and if not for God’s protection, trouble would come and there would be no way out.  Christians face all manner of hardship but God delivers them out of every one. “

It was now 9am the next morning and my daughter was released from the ER without as much as a scratch.  In hind sight, I believe that the entire incident was less about my daughter and more about God showing his awesome power to those that didn’t know him, my friend, the police, the paramedics, and even the doctors would all have to give God the glory after witnessing something like that.