His Faithful Love Endures Forever

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
"Give thanks to the God of gods.
His faithful love endures forever.
"Give thanks to the Lord of lords.
His faithful love endures forever.
"Give thanks to Him who alone does mighty miracles.
His faithful love endures forever."
-Psalm 136:1-4

Little did I know that this particular morning would be full of revealing evidence of God's faithfulness and of his everlasting love.

The phone rang as I was doing my morning worship, accompanied by several of my favorite YouTube worship videos. It was the voice of my boss telling me, "You know you were supposed to be here to open this morning, right?"

What the heck?! R U Serious?!

I had worked the previous night covering for a co-worker. Usually on Thursdays, I work in the evening as part of the closing crew. Since I needed the money, I gladly agreed to cover for my co-worker when he called me with desperation in his voice - sort of. So now I'm all screwed up schedule wise.

Actually, I wasn't. I just didn't check my schedule... shame on me.

So when I woke up on the morning of July 29, 2010, I was under the impression that I had to be at work at the usual time, some time in the evening.

"Holy Mary mother of ..." I really don't know what I said. "Dude, I'm on my way!"

So I got up, took a quick shower, got dressed, looked for something to eat, and headed out the door with my breakfast. My younger sister was there, so before heading out of the house, as usual, I gave her kiss on the forehead and her last image of me that morning was of my back exiting the front door.

It was around 9:30am when I started on the road to work that morning. It was a typical morning. Typical in the sense that nothing seemed unusual. As usual, I opened the sunroof of my black 2000 Honda Civic EX and put down both the driver and front passenger windows to enjoy temperature outside. And this is how I drove to work that morning. Wearing no seat belt.

As I made my way across the bridge into Cherry Hill, New Jersey, for some reason it caught my attention that the ground was wet. To me it made no sense because it hadn't rained in Philadelphia that morning and this part of Jersey is very close to Philly. Still, I kept driving, with my usual speed around that area, making no big deal of what seemed like an insignificant observation.

As I neared my exit, I safely maneuvered my way onto the furthest right lane of the express way and took the ramp towards my destination.

This is where a typical morning became atypical.

As I got onto the ramp, I suddenly felt my car slipping. The mental image yields to something surreal. I immediately sensed something bad was going to happen. I could see the car about to hit the right side of the curvy road, so I tried to straighten it up by turning the steering wheel in the opposite direction the car was heading. That just created more issues. Quickly, the car was no longer under my control and then it happened. I saw it happen. I couldn't believe it was happening...

During my attempt to regain control of the car and to steer it in the right direction, I sharply turned the steering wheel left, in panic. This means my car was in the process of doing a U-turn at high speed, on a one lane ramp exit. Suddenly I felt the first impact: the front right tire hits the curve and in a matter of seconds I saw me feet raise above my head.

NO WAY!

YES way.

I closed my eyes, held tightly to the steering wheel, and from that moment on the outcome of my life was in God's hands. After closing my eyes I really don't remember much. What I do remember was a pain on my upper back and then opening my eyes. I looked around. Nothing bad happened. To me, at least. "Jesus!" the first word out of my mouth. "Thank you, Jesus!" the next words out of my mouth.

Suddenly I found myself in a crawling position. I quickly looked ahead and saw the opening of the front passenger window. There was nothing in the way so I crawled out. When I reached outside, I realized that my car had landed upside down! My little soldier was crushed! In shock I stood there contemplating the scene in front of me.

How is it possible that I came out of that in one piece? I began to cry, but out of gratitude. I did not cry for the car (I was looking at it from the other side of the road and thought "Sucks to be you, buddy!"). I did not cry in pain. I did not cry out of shock. I was at peace. A peace I cannot describe till this day. A peace that kindles the feeling of gratitude I have till this day. A peace that reminds me how unworthy I am to be alive, yet God saw it fit for me to live and not allow a bone to be broken in my body.

"For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." Psalm 91: 11,12

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness
or danger or sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,
nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35,37

...and most def not a stupid lil' car accident.



Enjoy this beautiful song: My Help Comes from the Lord