the day mercy found me in the parking lot

Written January 2018

Last week I ran into someone's car. I had just left work after staying nearly an hour past my scheduled time, so I was looking forward to heading home and eating dinner with my husband. I turned on my GPS and made sure my lights were on. It was raining, and a customer had just warned me to be careful on the way home. I backed out of the parking stall, and as I was turning to drive away, the front of my car smashed into the back of a pickup truck.

It took me several seconds to realize what had happened - the truck's owner jumped out his vehicle and ran over towards me, yelling that I'd hit his car. I pulled into a parking spot and climbed out of my car. I'd shattered his back light. I had never been in an accident before, and I knew we were supposed to exchange information, but I didn't know much else besides that. I was really upset and felt really badly about the whole thing. Thankfully, one of my coworkers was coming back from break and came over. I hugged him and started crying.

"It's okay," the truck's owner said. "No one got hurt - that's what's important. You probably did more damage to your car than you did to mine!" My coworker hugged me tighter. "Is this your dad?" the man asked. 

"No," my coworker and I both said at the same time. "He's my coworker," I explained.

We stood out in the rain for a while and made some phone calls. Eventually, the man said, "I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm not going to report it or make you pay for it. It's raining tonight, and it might've been hard for you to see." 

I started crying again and tried to insist on paying for it, but he pulled something about of his wallet and showed me his badge. He was a policeman. As we stood around the truck, he said, "Little one, as far as I'm concerned, I don't see any damage." We both looked at the spot where a light should've been and where there was just a hole instead. "Now go inside and out of the cold," he said.

My coworker walked me back to my car and made sure I was all right before going inside. I was still very shaken up from everything that had happened, so I called my husband and asked if he could come to work and drive me home. But I was also overwhelmed with gratefulness. I also realized that what had taken place was an incredible picture of God's mercy: He looks at us and knows that we have sinned. And yet because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, instead of seeing our sin - instead of seeing the damage - He says, "Little one, as far as I'm concerned, I don't see your sin." God doesn't disregard the law, because He made it... but he fulfilled it through Jesus. Instead of making us pay for our damage, He paid for it Himself. The policeman is still going to have to pay to fix the light on his truck, but instead of allowing me to pay for it as I deserved, he decided to pay for it instead. 

This is only the second week of 2018, and it has already gotten off to an interesting start. Even so, J and I are incredibly blessed in that God has provided safe housing for us as well as a job for me. There are plenty of unknowns in the future, but we also serve a sovereign God who shows Himself in our lives in remarkable ways and unexpected places...even in parking lots on rainy nights.