June 6, 2014. This day will be stuck in my brain forever. Waking up to the sun shining, without a care in the world. It was the second day of summer vacation, and I had already made plans with my best friend to hang out later that day.
“I’m going to go on a run, so I will call you when I get back!"
Plans changed. While I was the lazy friend laying on my couch waiting for her to get back, my mom came down the stairs to share some unexpected news with me. I immediately knew something was wrong. She tried to hide the scared look on her face so that I wouldn’t freak out.
“Before you go crazy, she’s OK. Everything is OK."
Hearing that my best friend got hit by a car was not OK. What was my mom thinking? A car going 45 miles per hour on a major highway hitting a 15-year-old girl usually does not result in a happy ending. While I had the expected panic attack, my mom was constantly reminding me to trust. Trust God and remain in His peace that He has her life in His hands. Of course, that’s something that is a usual saying when something like this happens, but when you’re waiting to hear if your best friend is alive, it slips your mind a lot. Once we got the clear to go see her at the hospital, we got in the car immediately and drove to see and hear all that had happened.
I walked into the room to see her hooked up to an IV and tubes in her nose. She had blood in her hair and was covered in bandages and had a huge leg brace on. While it was an overwhelming sight, I was comforted by the smile that came across my best friend’s face when she saw us come in. A tear ran down her cheek because she knew that the laws of physics just don’t allow someone of her size to survive a hit like that. But God had a different plan.
But God.
But God knew what He was doing. But God knew that her life wasn’t going to end here. But God had greater things in store for my friend and this obstacle was just going to make her testimony stronger.
John 13:7 states, “Jesus answered him, ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.’”
Life is never easy to understand. Things happen that no one can comprehend and the question is always, “If there is a God who loves His children unconditionally, then why would He allow something like this to happen?” To be honest, I don’t always see the answer. But I know that my best friend’s life was not supposed to end on June 6, 2014. I know that God saved her for a purpose.
To see how this accident has affected my friend’s life has been life changing. Knowing that your life is a gift from God and that it could end any second, you have to cherish the times as they come. My friend has the most uplifting spirit and always has a smile on her face. Her faith has encouraged so many people through different ministries to appreciate the simplicity of life. Her love for God has helped me through a lot of tough times, and I know that I can always count on her to help me see the bigger purpose of it all. My friend strives to live each day to love God and to love others more and more. To have someone in your life with this spirit is a blessing. Someone who can look past an accident that could have resulted in the worst case scenario, but have an outlook that God was carrying her the whole time.
To have a best friend is a special gift. Someone who you can go to about anything and everything. Someone to laugh with and someone to cry to. Someone who knows absolutely everything about you and knows what you’re saying just by facial expressions. A best friend who is always up to go on adventures with whether it’s day trips to the beach or dancing in front of huge crowds of people in Spain. The person that encourages me to cherish each day and to not dwell on the things that could go wrong. To remind me that the people in life are so valuable. To love everyone like Jesus loved and to never stop seeking His truth.
As strange as it seems, I am forever grateful for June 6, 2014. Not that my friend was hurt, but the clarity that we can see now of why it happened. My friend’s testimony has been life changing for so many people, and her personality and faith is living proof. It’s easy to tell the story to people and share how it changed you, but seeing the change lived out is what makes people know that God had a bigger purpose.
