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Accidents Don't Always Just "Happen"

by Amanda Beattie

"Accident" Number One...

Last winter, my youth group took a ski trip to New Mexico. It was a terrific time of fun, fellowship, and of course, slipping, falling, and rolling down the mountain. Between the victory of managing to stand up on skis successfully, the panic of trying to board the lift for the first time, and the icy sensation of snow soaking into our sweaters, we had a blast. I was having such a great time that when the snow began to fall, I thought of it as the final high point of an already blessed day.

When we got on the bus to leave, the weather didn't concern me at all--it was just pretty. Pretty, that is, until we had been sitting in the parking lot for half an hour and hadn't moved. Neither had the line of cars on the road. Suddenly things didn't feel like such a winter wonderland...it became obvious that we were in for a very long trip.

"Accident" Number Two...

As we were waiting -- and waiting -- to get out of the parking lot, my youth pastor announced that there were some other people stranded at the top of the mountain. All uphill traffic had been closed so that drivers could get down the increasingly icy road; that left half of this group stuck at the top with us, wanting off the mountain, and the other half stuck at the bottom, unable to get to their friends. Since we had a big charter bus with extra room, we would give these folks a ride down.

Some of our youth, myself included, were obviously uncomfortable. We didn't want to leave anyone stranded, but we also felt odd about giving total strangers a ride. After all, we didn't know what they would be like. I was still a little nervous as the group of teens and young adults boarded our bus, but I was trying to relax and be friendly. We started making small talk, and introductions began.

We told them how we were a youth group from Oklahoma. They explained that they were a church group from Texas. I was just beginning to think about what a coincidence it was that we managed to pick up a group of Christians, when they told us what church they went to. My jaw just about hit the floor.

"I've been to that church," I told one of the youth. Now it was his turn to be shocked. "No way!"

It was true. I had been there several times to see their Christmas program. He turned and announced it to the rest of his group, and they seemed duly impressed. We began talking more about where we were from. I found out that, not only had I been to their church, I had been to a conference with them and never even knew it. I also had gone full-time to a church that one of their leaders used to attend.

A youth group from Oklahoma meeting a church group from Texas on top of a mountain in New Mexico? This was looking less coincidental by the minute.

The Purpose

That evening I felt as though I was at church -- on a bus! It started with our two groups joining to pray for safety on the journey down the slippery road. It began to grow into light singing. Before long, it erupted into full-blown praise and worship. We spent nearly the entire trip down the mountain praying and singing -- it was quite a service!

On top of everything else, we had a terrific fellowship time of talking, joking, and telling stories. The trip, normally a half-hour drive, took us seven hours in the snow. Under any other circumstances that would have been an agonizingly long journey; but by the end, not only did we have an incredible time with God, we had made a whole group of friends.

I'll never forget that slow, icy trip, or that awesome group of people. Even today, it makes me pause and marvel at how God can work in my life. I am blown away by how the Lord is a God of wonders who parts the Red Sea and raises the dead; yet, at the same time, He is a God of details, working small miracles in my day-to-day life.

God knew that our two church groups would be stranded on the mountain, so he brought us together. He didn't have to connect me with another group -- much less one I shared a history with -- but He did it anyway, out of His love and power.

While I will forever see Him as the mighty miracle-worker that He is, I never want to forget to look for God's hand in the "not-so-accidental" events in my life.

Life Applications:

Can you think of a time where God worked through an "accident" (in either your life or someone else's)?"
What did it look like?
Have you thanked Him for how He lovingly orchestrates those little details? (If not, now is a great time!)

Copyright 2003 by Amanda Beattie
All rights reserved.