More traumas that have affected my life

Some things that were traumas in my life have left their marks on me and in me. They have become a shaping and moulding influence for me in several ways. I have been sharing them with you and here is a third ordeal that had a lasting effect on my life.

This third thing was a near tragic accident that our family was involved in one Sunday afternoon as we were out for a drive. A young man ran a stop sign and hit my dads car full force throwing my mother out the door of the car for about 25 feet and my brother into a culvert on the side of the road. There were no seat belts in those days in the 1950's.

The most vivid thing for me, as an 8 year old boy, was the waking up in the arms of a stranger with my dads white shirt wrapped around my head and it was soaked and all red with my blood. I looked up into the face of a lady that helped to comfort me until an ambulance could take me to a nearby hospital. I had two gashes in my head from the broken glass inside the car. One was by my temple and one in the back of my head. I remember being on an operating table and them sticking a needle into the gash in the back of my head, both to probe for glass and to apply some medication so they could stitch me up.

My mother was hurt the worst of all of us having flown some 20 plus feet out of the car landing in the cinders along side of the road. It was winter time and they used cinders to spread on the roads then. She remained in the hospital for two weeks or so after the accident. My aunt Dot stayed with us for those weeks while my mom was in the hospital and my dad worked. My brother, who had a big bruise on the lower middle of his back, and I missed over a week of school at that time as well. My aunt taught us to crochet while we were home from school.

I remember that before the accident my dad couldn't talk because he had laryngitis but afterward he could talk fine. All he got out of the accident was a banged up knee as far as injuries go.

There was a lady at the scene of the accident that asked my father if anybody was hurt. He was standing there in the freezing cold with his jacket unzipped and no shirt on because it was around my bleeding head and the ambulances were there loading up people to take them to the hospital. He just walked away from her because as far as he was concerned it was a very dumb question.

In the other car a teenage girl had gone through the windshield of the car and her face was messed up quite badly. I did not see her but heard the people talking about the terribleness of it all.

Both cars were totaled and had to be towed to the junk yard. I went with my dad to get our stuff out of the car after about a week or two. We had some fishing rods and a few other things that were still OK after all the crunching of the metal and slamming up against a telephone pole when the car finally came to a stop.

I know most people have read the Footprints Poem or at least heard of it. Well through it all I believe the Lord carried me because He had a plan for my life and it didn't include going out into a Christless eternity. My life was preserved to allow me to get to the place where I received the Lord as my Saviour and He called me to preach the unsearchable riches of God.

Reflect on your life and you will see the hand of God all along the way as He kept giving opportunity to receive salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ. GOD IS GOOD!

Be blessed
Pastor Kitner