On the Eve of High School Graduation: Some Lessons from Our Son's Encounter with a Bus

At work Thursday the school secretary called my name on the public address system, telling me to come to the main office right away. I was packing up my classroom for the school year and left the door open and walked down the stairs and they were calling my name again. 

Instinctively, I made a sign of the cross when I was on the phone with my husband in the main office and he was telling me how our older son, Gabe, had been hit by an NJ Transit bus while riding his bike and was in the pediatric trauma unit and that he was alive and alert.

The sign of the cross was a sign of thanks for his being alive, and my plea for strength to get through whatever it was we were facing.

I went back upstairs to the classroom to gather my computer and then I turned in my key to my principal, who offered to find someone to drive me the hour south on an interstate to my husband and our oldest son. 

Instead, I spent the drive on the phone with one of my dearest friends, thankful God for bluetooth technology and Jane's ability to pray with me and then to keep me distracted with conversations about her daughter's high school graduation ceremony the night before and a surprise visit by her sister in law. 

It's been a long few days and we thank God that Gabe somehow managed to walk away from the accident with a mild concussion and five staples in his scalp. 

This is a photograph of him from this evening at his high school graduation. The bandana, borrowed from a friend the night of the accident, is serving as a head bandage.

I told Gabe that the innumerable gestures of love and concern from neighbors and friends these past few days are concrete signs of God's presence and mercy. Love is revealing itself precisely because this something awful happened. 

A woman from Wales whom I never have met and who is part of my online prayer group said something powerful to me that is resting in my heart. 

"God will use it for His glory. Amazing he is still alive and 

fighting:-) god obviously has a plan for him that has yet to be 

realised. How exciting."