I Could Already Hear the Sirens . . . Can You?
Is It Just Another Monday?
It’s an ordinary Monday afternoon. My daughter Jenna and I are driving home after lunch with a friend. The traffic light turns red. We stop.
As we wait, we notice a boy—maybe 10 years old—riding his bicycle on the sidewalk. Maybe he’s on his way to the store. Or a friend’s house. Or just taking a ride around the block.
Perhaps it’s just an ordinary summer day for him, too.
He approaches the intersection just as the traffic light turns green again. But he doesn’t notice the light.
He leaves the sidewalk and begins pedaling across the road.
At the same moment, a car from a side street also approaches the intersection just as the light changes. The car begins turning right.
That One Split Second
What happens next is so fast—less than one gulp of air—yet it takes all my breath away.
Sometimes it’s in the tiniest of moments that life changes forever. A single incident can ripple on, shattering not just one family, but multiple families, classrooms, communities. And strangers, too, like me.
In that split second of time, Jenna and I sit frozen in our seats. But the boy and the other car do not collide. The driver of the car—in the last possible instant—sees the boy and swerves.
That’s it. Nothing else happens.
Except the boy rides on. The car completes its turn. Jenna and I drive home.
Gratitude for What Doesn’t Happen
Instead of witnessing a tragic accident, hearing broken glass and frantic screams and emergency sirens, we return to the normal sounds of our ordinary Monday afternoon. After our hearts stop pounding. And our adrenaline runs out. And our brains adjust back to the beautiful reality of what is in this moment, instead of what could have been.
No harm done. Nothing altered. No lives changed.
What remains is gratitude. For a child I’ll never know that can laugh with his friends today, return to school in the fall, maybe grow up to be a gray-haired grandfather one day.
All because of what didn’t happen on this ordinary Monday afternoon.
The most ordinary days may be the most extraordinary ones of all.
Have you had a moment when you felt both terrified then thankful, from one breath to the next? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Whew! Oh, my, Lisa, that would have taken my breath away, too. Thank you, Lord, that this young man’s life was spared in that moment. Blessings!
I was holding my breath as I read through this because I expected the worst. Aren’t we just so human to do that?
BUT GOD…He chose to give this boy an extraordinary day, as well as the driver of the vehicle turning. Can you imagine living with the results of having hit the boy?
The ordinary days that He turns into extraordinary days are the best kind!
And, yes, I was relieved when I could breathe easy again. I was right there with you and Jenna. xx