A call to 911....

It was a couple days before Christmas .... Some friends had just left our house and we were relaxing! Stephen had suggested we play a game of candy land with the kids but we could not find the box. So while we looked, he went downstairs to begin to work on the plumbing. The shower was leaky and he wanted to fix it before it became too much of a problem. I had just gone to the store earlier in the day to get him a brand new chainsaw blade for his die grinder. He had just opened it and put it in his die grinder and began to work. Upstairs I could hear him working below as the kids played and I looked for the game. A few minutes later I heard a lot of noise coming from the basement but no screams so I thought everything was okay.
     Then.... I heard it. "Missy.... get the kids ready. We need to go to the hospital." I knew something bad happened. This is the man who could be dying and refuses to see a doctor because he felt it was unnecessary. I told the kids "Get your coats and shoes on"... knowing full well in the back of my mind this is a 20 minute process because most of them were just wearing a t-shirt and underwear or a diaper (and its late December in Michigan!) He emerged from the basement, leaving a bloody trail the whole way. I go in the bathroom with him to get more light, assuming its not all that bad because he is pretty calm and composed. Then I seen it.... and began to panic. This was no mild cut.... this was not just a little boo boo that a band-aid could fix... nothing a stitch or two could fix... this was full fledged "we got a problem!".... I looked at him and said, "dear, there is no way I can have these kids ready fast enough. I need to call 911." He was okay. As I was on the phone with them, I took a bed sheet and made a tourniquet to stop as much bleeding as possible. It appeared to be his bone I could see...blood all over.... it was a mess.
     The paramedics arrived within less than two minutes (we live less than 1/2 mile from the firehouse). The kids were all ushered into the girls' bedroom as they began to cry they did not want daddy to die. They rushed him to the hospital where they looked at his injuries. Pastor Hal came and prayed with us, as many of our friends joined in prayer. The next morning he had surgery done to fix a tendon in his arm, and sew him back up. He had so many stitches it was crazy. The wound stretched from his elbow to his wrist. It stopped at his watch. His watch protected his wrist.
     It was a very scary time, but I look back and I thank God for His hand of protection over my husband and our family. See, Stephen is self-employed as a landscaper. In the winter we get lots of snow.... which requires him to salt and plow... he needs his arm for that. It did not snow for many weeks right after it happened which allowed him healing time. Our friends had just left not even a half hour prior to the accident, so they were able to come back and sit with our kids while I went to the hospital with him. But the most amazing part is this.... when the die grinder took off and flew all over the ceiling in the basement above his head and going down his arm (all within a matter of seconds) it went down the outside of his forearm, not the inside. Had it gone down the inside, he would have died most likely. It would have taken out his veins and artery. The paramedics most likely would have arrived in time for him to bleed out. God had His hand of protection over our family.
     Even when it seems like, "God, why are you allowing this to happen to me?".... step back and say "God, thank you for allowing this to happen to me.... I know it could have been a whole lot worse." Thank the Lord for His hand of protection upon you as you drive through traffic that that drunk driver did not hit you... that the teenager who is texting while driving looked up in time to miss you...... that even though you ran out of gas on your way to work, it's okay.... maybe you just avoided a deadly accident. Or something so simple as maybe you did not get as much on your paycheck.... because you will have to stretch your faith a little farther trusting that God is going to provide for your every need. Thank Him for the flowers, thank Him for the rain.... thank Him for the sunshine, and thank Him for the pain.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

 (NIV)

¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.