A reminder: life hangs by a thread

"When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust."
Psalm 104:29

It was about 11pm last Wednesday evening (22nd July) and my wife and I had been driving for just under 4 hours. We were traveling back from Alton Towers and were 20 minutes from home on an unlit stretch of the A22. It was very dark, wet, narrow, and overtaking wasn't really feasible. We were traveling at 50 to 60 mph, as was the oncoming traffic.

As we drove past a lorry traveling in the other direction, a pair of headlights suddenly pierced our vision. They stared us directly in the face, on our side of the road, and just a few meters in front. A car stuck behind the lorry had embarked on an overtaking maneuver purely based on blind faith; threatening a head-on collision at over 100mph.

It was like the driver had made an insane life or death gamble and got it completely wrong. All to save a few minutes.

Lynsey slammed on the brakes and in a panic started swerving left and right (but there was nowhere to go). I have no idea how we made it past, but it was very, very close. If we had been traveling slightly faster, or were slightly closer... if Lynsey had reacted just a fraction later, the cars would have impacted on the driver's side of each bonnet. Lynsey would have been crushed. The two cars probably would have spun, sending the other car under the lorry (involving death, cripplement or general pain and manglement).

Incidents like these remind you that life hangs by a thread and you're totally in the hands of God. Yesterday my mum remembered that just a year or so back my little brother Andy had nearly drowned in a rip tide off the coast of South Africa (and made the local headlines!). When I was 14, one of my best friends simply dropped dead, without warning, in his neighbours back yard.

We assume we'll live to be all old and wrinkled, but the truth is life can end like the flick of a switch – completely unexpectedly and in an instant. No one knows when their time is up.