SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills
I have been an “exerciser” for many, many years of my life. As a matter of fact, I began jogging more than three months before I shamed Fred into jogging with me. We’ve never stopped doing something in the way of exercise.
So it came as no surprise to me to find an “aerobic dancing” class beginning shortly after we arrived in Heidelberg, West Germany. One of the military wives was teaching the class. I took the class and loved it! The interest was so great that she wanted to have a partner to help teach – and she selected me. I taught the remainder of the three years we were in Heidelberg. This was our logo and color.
During that time, there was one lady in my class who always stood in the front row and to my right (I was facing away from the students). As we conversed, I thought she had a speech impediment. After we got to know each other a bit better, she told me that she had been born with some hearing loss. She wasn’t totally deaf, but enough so that she couldn’t hear the way most words were sounded. That explained her speech. But she had hearing aids that helped her so much, and she could understand all the cues I shouted out in the class.
As interesting as all that is – to me anyway – that’s not the end of the story. We returned stateside and began our life in Virginia. Our oldest daughter had met her 
future husband while in high school in Heidelberg (his father was our American pastor), and he had returned to the States to attend college – where she was attending, of course. They married a few years later.
One evening, around Thanksgiving time, I received a call from our son-in-law, saying that, on their way to see his parents in South Carolina, our daughter had fallen asleep at the wheel and they had crashed. I was furious that he would only say that she was “in with the doctor” and wouldn’t give me any more details – like…..is she still alive???!!!
I asked if he wanted us to come and take them back home (they were only about an hour from their apartment). He agreed. He then said, “wait, here is the paramedic who will give you directions to the hospital.” This young man came on the phone and gave me the directions – with the very same intonation that my aerobic student had!! I knew at once that he had hearing loss, and not a speech impediment. And, by God’s grace, I was able to understand every word he said – the first time! No repeats. God had prepared me, all those years ago, for that very moment, when I would need my wits about me, and to understand this young man’s instructions.
I could end the story there – that is the main thrust of it – but I want to tell you of God’s gracious hand in all this. You see, when our daughter fell asleep, the car drifted, and our son-in-law looked up and screamed, which woke her, and she drastically over-corrected. That caused the car to roll several times. Amazingly, there were no other cars around them – just down the road a bit – no other cars involved in the crash. There was an off-duty ambulance behind them that stopped, and the paramedics gave aid. They could have rolled off a bridge and crashed onto the road below them – but they didn’t – they just rolled to a stop on an embankment. While the car was totaled, our children only suffered a few cuts and bruises.
Our God is loving and faithful and gracious, indeed.
O Lord, you will keep us safe and protect us…
Psalm 12:7
Old Things R New 