life and death

It's a little early for me to be blogging, but the thing is that I just got home and I can't sleep.

Last night my friends Sam and Drew and I were leaving Moody to go to a church event. We needed to turn left on the street, but since there was traffic and we were on bicycles, we went left in the near lane - going the wrong way in the bike lane. I saw an opening and crossed to the right side, but the guys were still on the wrong side.

All I heard was a horn, squealing brakes, and a thump. I looked back and Drew was dead - or so I thought. I shouted and somehow made my way back across the street while traffic stopped. Then Drew popped up next to the car and gave the driver and his wife thumbs up, telling them he was okay. And, miraculously, he was. When his bike hit the car head-on, he was near the passenger side. His knees hit something pretty hard and then he came off his bike, swung around in midair and hit his shoulder and head against the side of their car. He never hit the ground as far as any of us can tell.

Of course we went to the hospital and did all that stuff. Despite my initial assumptions, Drew immediately made it clear that he was entirely at fault for the whole thing. He had started to cross the road as I had just moments before. The car was black. He never saw them.

But no matter how many times I recount it, I don't know if there is any way to convey the sense that Sam and I shared - Sam who saw it and myself who heard it - disbelief - that in less than a second everything you know can be drastically changed. Shattered. Life and death. And every moment that we don't die is a moment God wants us to have.