Sharing His Goodness

By Brandi Crossen

Photo by Tomi Brown with TM Photography, Jacksonville

“Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples.”

Psalm 96:3

In February was our daughter Charleigh’s fourth birthday. She and her brother both had been diagnosed with Flu A. We had to reschedule her birthday party, cancel our original plans for her birthday, and were trying to make it as fun as possible, given the situation. For her birthday, her grandparents bought her a hoverboard and brought it to our house. After trying it out, we realized the one we had originally told them to get was probably too fast for her, so my husband went to Walmart and returned it. While there, he traded it for one that had a max speed of 6 mph, as well as an attachable seat so she could sit and ride versus stand and ride. She’s had bicycles, skates, scooters, battery-powered cars, four wheelers, motorcycles; you name it, the kid has had it. She’s ridden them all with zero issues. We never thought twice about the speed of the hoverboard and thought the seat attachment would make it safer for her, seeing as she could sit and ride instead of standing with the high probability of falling off. On the seat, you push the handles down and it accelerates, and when you release the handles, it’s supposed to stop/slow.

Josh, my husband, was in the garage putting together the hoverboard, attaching the seat, and figuring out the ins/outs of how it functioned. I was inside cooking dinner when Charleigh ran inside and asked for me to come outside and watch her try it out really quick before dinner/dark. I walked outside into the garage, and the three of us went to the end of our driveway. We live in a subdivision, and our house is at the very end of the street opposite of the end that connects to a main busy road. We purchased this house from my parents; my dad built it, and I’ve lived in it my entire life. I’ve ridden up and down this same street for 25 years, as has my daughter numerous times over her four years of life. This was supposed to be like all of the other times we’ve stood at the end of our driveway and watched her ride, but it wasn’t. She sat down and slowly started going forward. Once she was halfway between our driveway and the driveway next door, we started yelling for her to turn around. Between the hat she was wearing, the wind, the flu congestion, and the tiny bit of distance between us, she couldn’t hear. She then started accelerating faster, at this point my husband has already taken off as fast as he could after her. She just kept going faster and getting farther and farther. Once I started realizing she truly couldn’t hear us and wasn’t stopping, I took off dead sprint as well. As I saw her getting closer and closer to the end of our street and the main busy road, pure panic and fear took over. I was screaming, Josh was screaming, and we were both running as fast as we could.

I then noticed Josh (He was a bit ahead of me.) was screaming, waving his arms, and saying, “NO, PLEASE, STOP!” I looked to my right at the main busy road, and I saw the vehicle coming. At this point my heart was out of my chest, and I ran on pure adrenaline. Right as the car was about to pass the end of our street, my beautiful four-year-old shot onto the busy road on the hoverboard. I immediately shut my eyes out of instinct because there was no doubt in my mind the inevitable was coming, and if my daughter was about to get run over, I couldn’t watch it happen. BUT GOD! Prior to shooting out onto the main road, Charleigh ran up on the curb and into the yard of the last house on our street; it slowed her down a mere five to ten seconds, BUT that mere five to ten seconds saved her life. The car passed; she passed right behind it (so close she probably could have reached out and touched the back bumper), ran up on the sidewalk, into the field across from the end of our street, and fell off . . . unharmed, untouched. Had she not hit the curb or had the vehicle been going any slower, the outcome would have been my worst nightmare.

“Had she not hit the curb or had the vehicle been going any slower, the outcome would have been my worst nightmare.”

When I say I have never felt that feeling in my entire life, I mean it. I would rather be buried alive than EVER feel that feeling again. BUT, I have also never felt God like I felt Him in that moment, either. Josh and I both were bawling when we got to her and have cried several times since, even weeks later. We had neighbors running up behind us shortly after because they heard our screams. There were two more cars that stopped to check on her and us because they watched the entire scene play out farther down the main road. I even came inside and vomited from fear, adrenaline, and the overwhelming feelings that were running through my body.

I got to tuck my four-year-old into bed on her birthday only because God is merciful. God was there. He was on the hoverboard, completely in control. God intervened with the curb. God pushed us to return the faster hoverboard for a slower one. God made the vehicle and Charleigh pass each other right where it goes from a two-lane to a two-lane with a turning lane to give her more space to miss the car. God timed everything up to where our baby would be okay. If you have ever had any doubts about God, I hope this story reaches you. Trust His goodness, trust His timing, trust in Him, trust in me when I say God is real. I went back and forth on sharing this story, but God says to praise Him aloud, to talk about His goodness, to share in His glory. This story was something I had to praise Him for.

“I got to tuck my four-year-old into bed on her birthday only because God is merciful. God was there.”

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