Safe In Heaven
Barbara was driving her six-year-old son,
Benjamin, to his piano lesson.
They were late, and Barbara was beginning
to think she should have canceled it.
There was always so much to do,
and Barbara,a night-duty nurse at the
local hospital, had recently worked
extra shifts.She was tired.
The sleet storm and icy roads added
to her tension.
Maybe she should turn the car around.
"Mom!" Ben cried. "Look!"
Just ahead
a car had lost control on a patch of
ice. As Barbara tapped the brakes,
the other car spun wildly, rolled over,
then crashed sideways into a telephone pole.
Barbara pulled over,
skidded to a stop and threw open her
door. Thank
goodness she was a nurse--she might be able
to help these unfortunate passengers.
Then she paused. What about Ben?
She couldn't take him with her--little
boys
shouldn't see scenes like the one she anticipated.
But was it safe to leave him alone?
What if their car were hit from behind?
For a brief moment Barbara
considered going on her way.
Someone else was sure to come along.
No! "Ben, honey, promise me you'll
stay in the car!"
"I will, Mommy," he said
as she ran,
slipping and sliding, toward the crash
site.
It was worse than she'd feared.
Two girls of high school age were in
the car. One, the blonde on the passenger side,
was dead, killed on impact.
The driver, however was still breathing.
She was unconscious and pinned in the
wreckage.
Barbara quickly applied
pressure to the wound in the
teenager's head while her practiced
eye
catalogued the other injuries.
A broken leg, maybe two, along with
probable internal bleeding.
But if help came soon, the girl would
live. A
trucker had pulled up and was calling
for help on his cellular phone.
Soon Barbara heard the ambulance sirens.
A few moments later she surrendered her
lonely post to rescue workers.
"Good job," one said as he
examined the driver's wounds.
"You probably saved
her life, ma'am." Perhaps.
But as Barbara walked back to her car
a feeling
of sadness overwhelmed her,
especially for the family of the girl
who had
died. Their lives would never be he same.
Oh God, why do such things have
to happen? Slowly Barbara opened her car door.
What should she tell Benjamin?
He was staring at the crash site, his
blue eyes huge.
"Mom," he whispered,
"did you see it?" "See what, Honey?" she asked.
"The angel, Mom! He came down
from the sky
while you were running to the
car. And he opened the door, and he took that girl out."
Barbara's eyes filled with tears. "Which
door, Ben?"
"The passenger side. He took the girl's hand,
and they floated up to Heaven
together." "What about the driver?". Ben shrugged.
"I didn't see anyone else."
Later Barbara was able to meet the
families of
the victims. They expressed their gratitude
for the help she had provided.
Barbara was able to give them something more; Ben's vision.
There was no way he could have
known--by ordinary means -- who was
in the
car or what had happened to
either of the passengers. Nor could
the
passenger door have been opened;
Barbara had seen it's tangle of immovable
steel herself. Yet Ben's account
brought consolation to a grieving family.
Their daughter was safe in Heaven.
And they would see her again.
