Today I went to leave for the Men's Bible Study and noticed that my windows were covered with condensation. I almost jumped in and started to drive away with my windshield wipers whipping away when I remembered an incident about twenty years ago.
I was riding my bicycle to work in Sunnyvale when I noticed a car pass me on the left which had fogged up windows. Actually it was just condensation from the early morning dew, but they were well covered and the driver had a small six inch round cleared space to see out of.
We both stopped at the next light and when it turned green we both began to turn left. I was of course in the outside lane watching carefully that this car was actually going to turn left. His turn signal was on, but I have seen cars with turn signals on that did not turn the way the signal was directing. As I looked up ahead of me I saw a woman crossing the road about twenty yards away from the cross walk. If we weren't turning left it wouldn't have been a problem, but she was crossing in the middle of the street. As she walked, hurriedly by now, seeing the cars turning left, she walked right into the path of the car on my left.
I thought it was going to miss her but the car clipped her left hip as the driver started to speed up. He hadn't seen her coming from his right until she was directly in front of him.
Down she went. Screaming in pain. I stopped, so did the car, and others in the vicinity. Someone called 911 and the man driving got out of his car. He was in shock that he had hit someone and turning to people around him he exclaimed, "I didn't see her." "My windows were fogged up and I didn't know she was there till she was right in front of me."
The polikce came and then the ambulance. I gave the police my name as a witness, if there were any questions. After she was carted off in the ambulance I headed off to work.
The driver did not intentionally hit her. She was actually crossing a well traveled road where you should only cross in the crosswalk. Even though she was where she shouldn't have been, because of the poor visibility out of the window this driver was unable to avoid an accident.
How often do we head off to work or play or to do errands and we haven't cleared off our foggy windows? I know when I have a lot to do I want to jump in the car and speed out to get as much done as I can. But I need to make sure I have a clear vision. I need to make sure I am going in the right direction. I need to seek God first. You see before we start our day it is important to take some time with God. Before we head off to accomplish all those tasks on our list we need to have our priorities aligned just the right way. We need to remember that God is walking by our side and our relationship with him and others around us are of first importance. If we don't keep that vision clear we will "accidently" run into something or somebody else.
So this morning, before I took off in my truck I squeeged my windows and I prayed.
The best prevention is preparation, don't you think,
On the road with you,
Pastor Randy
