Burning Van

So this is a bit out of the ordinary for this blog, but it's pretty amazing, so I will share it anyway.

I was driving home in the minivan with the boys and noticed the A/C wasn't working very well.  Next, I noticed a funny overheating type of smell.  Shortly after that (seconds later) I noticed the hood was smoking.  I became frustrated, thinking of how I'd have to take the van in to get a new radiator.  As I merged lanes to pull off into a parking lot, I noticed an electrical burning smell...similar to the kind I smelled in my days working as an electrician when doing repairs from electrical fires.  When the smoke got thicker I realized it was time to get out of the van.  I put the car in park, took the keys out and got out of the van to go around and get the boys (Elliott and Bo) out.  By the time I was out of the van, I saw that the passenger part of the hood was on fire.  I flung the sliding door open and woke Elliott up, telling him it was important that he get out of the van right then.  I took Bo out, still strapped into his car seat and got the boys on the lawn underneath a tree in the shade far away from the van.  I turned around to look at the van and saw my mom driving by.  Weird.  She pulled over and the boys loaded up with her while the van went up in flames.  All of this happened over the course of about five minutes.

I'm not sure that I've processed all of this yet.  I mean, the minivan is completely gone, and the boys and I are completely fine.  All of this could have been so much worse.  I told Elliott at least 10 times today how proud of him I was that he obeyed so well and didn't ask why when I told him to get out of the van.  He was in the middle of a nap at the time, btw.  I'm so thankful for experiences like this, because it's through these bigger things that we can really deeply learn important lessons.  Just a week ago I was trying to explain to Elliott why it's so important that he listens and obeys without asking why.  I told him that, sometimes, there's no time for explanations...action just needs to be taken.  He got to watch the van burn too.  I'm thankful for that.  I mean, how cool is it to watch things burn in the first place, let alone a big car, let alone your own.  But I'm thankful for the lesson.  After telling him how proud I was of him, he asked what would have happened if he stayed in the van.  I told him it could have been really bad...bad for him, Bo, me.

I know that God oftentimes tells me to do things...and it's not necessarily that I don't understand why, and no, it's not a clear audible voice...but it's knowing what I should do...but not feeling like it, or wanting to.  I think that God gives us instances like these in our life to look back in retrospect and see what may have happened if we didn't listen.


Tonight when I put Elliott to bed, he prayed and asked that God would help the van feel better.