Streams of Mercy

I’m always saddened to hear of young people injured in accidents, many of them leaving us much too soon.

The summer I graduated from high school, two fellow classmates were in a terrible automobile accident and were left behind when our group of friends headed off to college that fall. While they did recover in time, their lives were forever changed, as were our lives, for going through that experience with them.

In a former congregation several years ago, a young girl was on the way to the beach with friends, when she took her eyes off the road just long enough to retrieve her cell phone from the floor. Her beautiful young life left us that August afternoon. In a sharing session with our youth group, one member asked where God was when she needed him, and before I could answer, another youth responded, “He was in the car with her.”

“You will wear their absence like a secret locket

Always wondering why such a new soul

Was taken home so soon.”

(from To Bless the Spaces Between Us, by John O’Donohue)

Last night I learned that a young man from that same former congregation had been injured in a tubing accident. He was all set for college in the fall, and had been to baseball camp at the university and was enjoying an afternoon out with his new friends. I’m told the tow ropes got tangled up and he was pulled into the propeller. I’m praying his young life will be spared and he’ll fully recover.

Last night I also learned of a teammate on my granddaughter’s diving team being injured in a four wheeler accident, only a week before the National Diving Championship meet in Texas. Doctors are not sure he’ll walk again. Once again, my prayer is for his full recovery.

It seems the young often throw caution to the wind and think they’re invincible. That summer before college is a time of “spreading wings” and “trying new things.” May God bless our youth with safe transition through such times, and “traveling mercies” all their days.

Elizabeth