Saved

Struck by a Cadillac and thrown into the air! That was the scene in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Our six-year-old daughter, June, lay at the center of the drama. She was returning from the local swimming pool one summer day with her older sister and some friends. They had gone with our permission. It would be their last swim before we left Boston. There had been many lasts—the last church service, the last day of school, and now the last swim. How could we refuse? But now June lay sprawled on the road, bringing traffic to a standstill. Her terrified sister and friends screaming, and the Cadillac driver was very worried.

At the hospital she was thoroughly checked out, given a lollipop, and sent home. Home to tears of relief and feelings of guilt. For, you see, neither parent was there initially. We had been completing some lasts of our own—the last meeting with college classes, the last box of books to pack. June was unhurt, but we were riddled with guilt. We should have been there. We could not even find words to discuss the incident.

Quietly we finished packing and left Boston in a fog after almost losing our middle child. Our fashion-conscious, outspoken, loveable June.

That incident was a defining moment in her life—and our lives, the day we almost lost her. Whenever I see accidents like this on the news, most end badly. Why was she saved without a scratch? What plans does God have for her life? We had almost lost her before when, after an uncomplicated birth, she developed stomach problems as an infant. Could her great aunt, a pediatric nurse, help her? We had to do something, so we took her to her aunt, who lived on a neighboring island. June returned to us seven months later, round as an orange, and seldom got sick again. I tell these stories so she, now June Egypt, wife, mother of two, and clinical social worker, will know how much she is loved, not by her father, mother, and family alone but by her heavenly Father. May she pass on these stories to her children and her children’s children. Child of God, you, too, are loved by God. When life knocks us down, He will save us!

Annette Walwyn Michael