I was talking to my mom last night and she recapped a story that had been told at their stake conference last week. ... The woman who spoke had been witness to a plane accident in the early morning a few weeks ago. She had left work at the hospital on a slightly different schedule than usual, and decided last minute to go see her husband at the fire station on her way out of town. After spending a few minutes with him, she was back on the highway headed towards home, when she saw a plane coming in fast and hard and knew it was going to crash. She looked away for a second and missed the point of impact, but she could see the fireball and knew exactly where the plane had landed. Having been trained as an EMT, she knew that if she called 911 from her cell phone, it would take several minutes to route the call through to local authorities; however, her husband was at the fire station (awake and dressed, thanks to her visit earlier that morning) and she knew he would answer immediately if she called his cell. She hit redial on her phone and said the words "Plane crash" to get his attention as he picked up. A heavy fog had rolled in and she knew that the plane would be hard to see from the road with visibility impacted, but she also knew that the SLFD had been dealing with fires in that area recently and was able to use that as a reference for giving him a location. Within minutes, first responders were on site at the crash and they were able to save the lives of two people who'd been on board that plane.
Now, I may have gotten that a little out of order, and some of the details may be wrong (because it's not my story, and it's the second telling of it... and we all know how that old "telephone" game usually goes), but the story brought such a point home to me that I wanted to share at least the bare bones of it.
A few more details and thoughts:
From her vantage point on the road, and because of the nature of the fiery crash, the woman who saw it happen and made the call had been certain that no one could have survived. And yet, two people did. Two of the four people who'd been in the plane did survive the actual wreck. Could they have survived a possible hour or more of having been trapped in wreckage and/or in the fire that ensued when the plane went down, had there not been a witness who was in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, with exactly the right skill set and experience to know NOT to call 911 and waste valuable minutes, who happened to have a contact on speed dial at the fire department? Almost certainly, no. And yet, she was there. She was exactly where she needed to be to have seen what she saw, to have made a call to her husband, who was in exactly the right position to be one of the first responders who pulled two bodies to safety.
Two lives were saved because she was where she needed to be, because she knew what to do and was able to respond in the way that she responded.
How amazing is that?
I mean... How AMAZING is that?!
And the thing is, I think things like that happen more often than we know they do. (Not plane wrecks, exactly. More like, we're in the right place at the right time. Or we do the right thing, not even knowing what kind of impact we'll have on someone else's life.)
I've been thinking about this story all day, and I'm just so amazed and grateful to have seen the Lord's hand in my own life this past week.
The last week has been hard. Not bad, necessarily, but hard. I've been processing a lot, which is exhausting. Emotionally, I've had a lot going on and I've been all over the map, and I don't think it's any kind of coincidence that I've had friends and family coming out of the woodwork (even more than usual) this last week.
Here's a not-so-secret about me: I love presents. Love them. Also, I love my people. Love them. (Are you familiar with the concept of The Five Love Languages? I am such a mix of quality time and gifts. Obviously.)
Again, I don't think it's any kind of coincidence that this week I've received three packages, one of which was a box full of Kleenex (we all know that I'm a crier) and two that had movies in them (we all know that I am a movie-a-holic and love nothing more than vegging out on my couch with hours of mind-numbing cinematic entertainment in front of me). I don't think it's any kind of coincidence that, on Sunday, I got a text from my friend, Kimmie, planning a GNO for Thursday.
Here is what I think (read: know) - the Lord is aware of me. He knows what's going on in my life. He knows how I feel and He knows how to help me. There were people perfectly positioned over a week ago, before I hit a major roadblock on Tuesday and landed myself on the floor, crying into my socks (I only wish I was kidding), to be in play this week.
I'm quite sure that none of the people who put packages in the mail last week, or early this week, knew that I'd need a visual reminder that I am loved. (How they could have possibly known that I would need to know - this week, more than usual - that even if I don't always get what I want, or what I think I need, that I am loved? They could not have known.) I don't think Kimmie had any kind of awareness that, by the time Thursday rolled around, I would be in desperate need of some quality time with friends. I'm so grateful to Kimmie, Annie, Cassidy and Liz for having (and/or making) the time to spend an evening with me. I'm so grateful for close friends who are only a phone call away. For Jo, who knows my favorite ColdStone creation and showed up on my doorstep Tuesday night, ice cream in hand. (This was the absolutely crippling, crying-into-the-socks night, people, and again... it was no small coincidence, to me, that she knew that I needed her and that I needed ice cream.) I'm grateful for my cousin who lives an ocean away, who thought of me when she read a New Era article and emailed me a reminder that sometimes the miracle we ask for isn't the miracle we're given.
I had either people or packages show up at my house every single day this week. I received more personal emails this week than I have in the last several weeks combined. I had verbal and FB conversations with friends from my childhood, and friends from my twenties and thirties.
I am so grateful for timing. Even when I think it stinks, and that timing is the thing that makes my life hard, or more difficult than I like to think it would be if I could just be in charge of my body (oh, and the rest of the universe) ... timing is the very thing that has saved me. Earlier this week, I was cursing timing and my lack of control. At the end of the week, I am so grateful that the Lord had things perfectly timed to have a different person show up every day.
My word, it is humbling and completely awesome to have been given yet another opportunity to see the connections between Heaven and Earth in my life. I am, once again, amazed at the clarity with which I can see and feel love all around me. I am so grateful for people who love me, who listened when they were told how they could help me, who followed hunches and made phone calls and sent emails or texts, for those who came over and planned parties and put packages in the mail.
I'm telling you, there are so many people in my life who have shown up this week - either literally or figuratively - and given me support and shown me love that it completely blows my mind. No less than a dozen people were as perfectly in play for me as the woman who witnessed a plane wreck was for the Hatch family. Did anyone literally see a plane go down in flames and come to my rescue? No. But they reached out to me and they showed me love and reminded me of the value in the relationships that I have in my life, which was its own kind of rescue. And for them, I am supremely grateful.
