Knightmare on Knight Street

What a week. I shouldn't be here to tell you about it. A week that was otherwise burdensome with school stress, insomnia and craziness involving our landlady was punctuated by two back-to-back near death experiences. They still make me sick just thinking about them. Our internet was out Thursday and Friday, and I needed to email an assignment to one of my TA's by 11:50pm Friday, so Allison and I made plans to go to a Blenz (free internet) in Coquitlam. We got as far as the garage when I thought I may have left the hot plate on. I felt bad for making Allison wait for me to go check it, but I went back in anyway. Turns out, it wasn't on, but we were 20 seconds later leaving the house. We walked north up Lanark Street, and just as we got to 49th (to make a left turn on the sidewalk towards the bus shelter), we heard screeching and BAM! Just at that moment, we turned the corner and saw a black Mustang parked on exactly the spot I stand to wait for the bus every morning. The car, whose front end was completely totalled, was surrounded by the remains of the bus shelter, which was now a crumpled, destroyed mess of glass and metal. It was the most improbable accident scene: this lady had somehow crossed over two lanes of oncoming traffic (after jumping over a cement barrier), and crashed into that shelter pointing the wrong way on a very busy street. I am sure that had I not been prompted to check the hotplate, Allison and I would have already been standing in the crease of the bus shelter, chatting away to each other, unaware that we should be watching for oncoming traffic from that direction. No doubt that would have been the end for both of us. Emergency vehicles were there within three minutes, and by midnight, everything (car, pole, shelter and all) had been cleared away).

Which brings me to our 2nd near death experience. Allison and I took the bus home later that night and got to our stop at around midnight. It was dark, pouring-down rain - not an unusual Vancouver evening. Having witnessed an accident at this same spot only hours earlier, we very warily crossed the street, eyes pointed in every direction. We waited for the light to change, standing as far away from the edge of the street as possible. The "cross" signal came on, and we cautiously began walking across Knight Street (a 6 lane urban highway in South Vancouver). Both of us checked every possible direction for traffic. About a quarter of the way across the street, a Toyota truck came barelling down the cross-street ready to turn onto our street, not watching for pedestrians in the crosswalk and not at all slowing down. I was in front of Allison, and when I saw that the guy wasn't going to stop for us, I ran in front of the stopped traffic ahead, thinking I would be safest there. I turned around, and Allison wasn't behind me. My heart sank, and my only comfort was that I hadn't heard a "thump" so he must not have hit her. By the grace of God, Allison, having been two steps behind me, had been able to step back as he charged though (way beyond the speed limit). He missed us both by inches. We stood momentarily in front of the stopped traffic to make sure each other was OK, then we ran off the street as quickly as possible. We were shaking, furious and terrified. I bawled my eyes out the whole way home.

Today in church, I shared our experience with everyone, and I got to thinking a little more about it. You know, most of the time, God protects us so much that we have no idea what lengths He goes to to ensure our protection and well-being. Maybe this was just a little reminder of how close we come every day to disaster, and that He really is watching out for us, even when we are most vulnerable - even on a dark, rainy Vancouver night with nothing but our bus pass to protect us from the speeding cars on the highway.

Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Psalm 100:3 (NIV)

KNL