Mercy on the Road

Yesterday, I had an experience that gave me a new perspective to the concept of mercy.

I was driving home from work and had just passed through an intersection. Traffic was a bit heavy as usual during evening rush hour. I pulled to a stop behind a long line of cars that was backed up at the next light. As I looked down to move an object from my lap to the seat next to me, I must have eased up on the brake without realizing it, because the next thing I knew, a great jolt shook my car. My head snapped up and to my horror I realized I had just hit the car in front of me. It took about two seconds to process what had just happened, but those two seconds felt a whole lot longer. A low moan escaped my lips, and strangely enough, the first words out of my mouth were, "I'm so sorry, Lord." (Not quite sure why I was apologizing to the Lord...I guess I felt guilty for not being as attentive as I should have.) Then, a jumble of thoughts began to race through my mind: "I can't believe I just hit that car! I've never been in an accident before. I know I'll need to get out my insurance card and driver's license...what else do I need?"

I saw the driver of the car in front of me unbuckle his seat belt and climb out for a look at his back bumper, so I hit my emergency flashers and followed suit. "I am so sorry," I started to say. "Has your car been damaged?" He looked at me but did not reply, just proceeded to examine his bumper. After about a 5-second inspection, he looked back up at me and stated very calmy, "It's okay. Don't worry about it." I couldn't believe my ears! What? No dent? No damage? No need for an insurance card or a call to the police?

I pointed to an area on the side of his bumper that was obviously banged up and hanging crooked. "Was this already here?" I asked. He said yes. "Okay." I replied. Then, we each climbed back into our idling cars and drove off. The whole transaction took less than five minutes.

In that moment, I felt engulfed by mercy. It was God's mercy that no damage was done. Even though the "collision" had very little force behind it, it was still my fault that I had not paid better attention to my braking efforts. It was also very merciful of the fellow driver to show such kindness and not press any kind of charges.

My heart was singing all the way home (and I was very careful to keep my distance from the infamous gold Camry in front of me). God is so good!