Last night my youngest daughter had a car accident. She was the only vehicle involved and thankfully she walked away sore, but otherwise unharmed. After hugging her and tending to her needs, I sat down to write about it because that’s how I process things. I posted on Facebook that I felt blessed, but I think what I really felt was an extreme sense of relief and thankfulness. How could I say I was blessed when just a few years ago a former student lost his life in a car accident? Did God bless me and turn His face from them? If that’s the case, when do I become the cursed? How could I deserve His blessings and they His curses?

It is true that the hedge my mother has always prayed around her children and grandchildren was in full working order last night. Valerie had reached for her cell phone to call her father – who was in the truck in front of her – to ask for directions. She’s a new driver and I’ve not been the best teacher in how to get from Point A to Point B. When she reached down, she also hit a wet spot in the road, hydroplaned, hit the brakes and over-corrected. Her car landed broadside against five pine trees and a cedar tree. She was almost cradled there.

Had she hit the cedar head-on she’d likely have died. Had she not hit the pine trees and slid just a few feet over instead, she’d have rolled the car down an embankment and into a creek. I don’t know why she survived without a scratch. I don’t know why so many other parents have lost their children in a similar manner, and I don’t know how to handle this idea of blessings.

Many people say they’ve been blessed and that their blessings are not about them, but instead about God. How does that make the homeless child feel about God, though? The grieving mother? The soldier’s widow who will forever remain alone? Valerie says the blessings come even in those times by people God puts in the lives of the scared and grieving to help them through. She’s always the “silver-lining” kind of kid. She’s says that throughout the entire wreck she never felt alone.

In truth, I’m not really sure what I am other than extremely thankful that my baby girl gets to live another day. Whether it’s a blessing or just the way things are supposed to be is really irrelevant, I guess, so I’ll just hug her a little longer today both to show my love and gratitude that she’s alive and for those who cannot hug their children.