Please, Please, Please Don’t…

This past week I needed to run to Hobby Lobby for supplies for a wood burning class I am teaching at our homeschooling co-op. After dropping the boys nearby to get haircuts, Jubilee, Ruby and I headed over to Hobby Lobby.

After parking, Jubilee came around the back of the van to meet me as together we lifted Ruby’s wheelchair down from the back end. As I shut the left door Jubilee took the handles of the wheelchair and began to step slowly backwards while pulling the chair handles to maneuver around the right door which was still open and could not be shut until the wheelchair was out of the way.

The thing is that Jubilee is severely hearing impaired and cognitively is not aware of potential danger. So as she wheeled Ruby’s chair a couple of steps back in her happy-little-girl-way she was completely unsuspecting that a negligent woman was driving way too fast and way too close as she came barreling down our side of the parking lot aisle.

Rather than driving slowly down the center of the parking lot aisle, she was way, way, way over on our side and hearing-impaired Jubilee had literally backed right into the path that the careless woman was driving as she speedily approached going a speed faster than anyone should be driving in a parking lot.

My heart raced as I reached, shouting at Jubilee while grabbing Jubilee’s arm and pulling her to safety. The woman, about my age, never slowed down at all, nor did she even glance in our direction as she recklessly passed us. The parking lot was relatively empty, it was the middle of an afternoon and she was already too close without Jubilee backing up!

By God’s incredible grace, Jubilee was not hit as the woman negligently careened her car about 12 inches from us. I was really shook and writing about it causes me to start praising the Lord in an effort to settle my heart all over again at His divine protection.

The woman seemed to have come out of nowhere and was suddenly just there. Jubilee was innocently entering its path as she backed the chair up to maneuver around the open door. Just twelve inches separated Jubilee from serious harm and bodily injury.

So here’s the reminder: Please, please, please don’t speed in parking lots. Please don’t be so distracted with your next errand, what you are going to eat, the conversation you just had, what you purchased, what was out of stock, who texted you, whatever(!!) that you don’t notice the beautiful person made in God’s image right in front of you. Please don’t assume people hear you coming. One never knows who is stepping out from behind a parked van or truck or wheeling a wheelchair back.

Please, please, please. And trust me in this: Saying you are sorry will never fix a broken body or shattered lives.

3 thoughts on “Please, Please, Please Don’t…

  1. What a good reminder. In addition to the hearing impaired, unsuspecting little ones can so easily quickly run into harm’s way in a parking lot.

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