A is for ACCIDENT

As the last of nine concrete posts disappeared under the bonnet and the family car eventually came to a halt my first thought was not of the damage I had done, nor indeed about the welfare of my passengers but how did it happen? And in the eerie silence that seems to accompany the first moments which follow, I recalled my last action had been to turn and check that dad's seatbelt was properly connected, but in turning my body, I had also pointed the car in a route that led to grass, a sturdy fence and the field that lay beyond. Nobody was hurt, but dad bore the mental anxiety for some time as he pondered the immediate future without his necessary transport and the financial cost that I had never considered.

It was several years before I would experience that silence again, though there is little one can do when your parked car sees another slide towards it on a snowy, winter evening and there is little consolation to be found in the fact that you are the innocent victim when the inconvenience of the aftermath sets in.That was not to be the last time I would experience metal colliding with metal, though as my speed now rarely exceeds my age, I seem to have avoided such moments in recent times. I say this with some hesitation as I know at any time it could come back to haunt me. However, I don't intend to continue this speed / age collaboration much beyond my ninetieth birthday, except possibly on motorways!

Yet, as you know, the picture is much darker than I have painted, for my own mishaps have been trivial when compared to others and I have lost many friends and acquaintances in unforeseen incidents, many not involving any vehicle but all classified as 'accidents' and every one leaving the emotional scars that time does little to heal. How often have those words, 'if only', floated about in your head and found no resting place. How often have you watched the news, scanned the teletext or read the newspaper to find another home torn apart unexpectedly.

This week, my memories resurfaced as David recounted his own incident while travelling in Africa just a few weeks ago. As he shared his thoughts of those long seconds between leaving the road and impact, his certainty that there would be no happy ending and his unwarranted feelings of guilt that he had emerged with only shock but his colleague still lay ill in hospital, he simply said, 'You know, with God, there are no accidents.'

And as I pondered those words afterwards and thought of all the scenarios that we gather under the umbrella of 'accident', I began to realise that he was no longer talking about 'an unintentional happening that usually results in harm, damage or loss' but in fact was thinking about 'any event that happens unexpectedly, without a deliberate plan or cause.' And then I understood that he was right. With God, there are no accidents, though many of his plans may seem unexpected to us. How interesting then that 'accident' is never mentioned throughout the Bible and only a few times as part of the word accidentally, in the the context of unintentional but 'plan or plans' appears over seventy times. So when Jeremiah writes, 'For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,' I have all I need to know. And remember, God didn't bring you to this page by accident!