The Big Tractor
It was July of this year, and Susan Archie was out in her
back yard, looking at the big tractor her husband used to
cut the lawn. He had always promised to teach her how to
drive it, but with all the outside chores in their rural
area in South Carolina, he hadn't gotten around to it yet.
The lawn needed cutting, and the tractor didn't look all
that hard to drive, Susan mused. Maybe she should try it.
She checked on her six-year-old son, Joshua, who was driving
a little motorized car on the other side of the yard. He was
enthralled with all things mechanical, and probably knew
more about the tractor than she did. "Stay over there,
Joshua," she called to him. "I'm going to cut the grass on
this side."
Up and over and into the seat before she had time to
reconsider. The wheels on the tractor were up to her nose,
and the cutting blade was seven feet long.. She wouldn't
think about any of that. Plenty of country women drove
tractors. She turned on the ignition, and the engine sprang
to life.
One pass along the outside of the grass, turn, and then
another pass. Susan was doing just fine. Joshua had
approached once, yelling that she wasn't cutting the grass
just right, but she had waved him away. Now he was back on
the safe side of the lawn. Or was he? Suddenly Susan
realized that Josh was not where she'd thought he was.
Frantically she looked around. There he was, riding up
alongside of her! "Josh, get away!" Susan stepped on the
brakes.
"Mom, you're not cutting it right!" she heard him shout.
Then Josh attempted to jump onto the tractor. In a horrified
moment, she saw him slide beneath the tractor, and felt the
huge wheel go over him. "Josh!" she screamed, cutting the
engine. Her husband came running from the front yard. "He's
under the tractor! I've killed him!" Susan screamed, as she
ran for the phone in the house.
The shock of the unbelievable scene stayed with her as she
babbled to the paramedics. Why hadn't she been more careful?
What damage had the blade done to him? God, God. She
couldn't think of any formal prayer, but her heart seemed
ready to burst.
Since the Archies lived so far into the country, the
paramedics told Susan they would meet her and Josh at a
country store several miles away, rather than waste precious
time looking for the house. Susan ran back to the accident
scene. Her husband had somehow gotten Josh out from under
the tractor wheel, and he was lying on the ground. Stunned,
she realized the six-year-old was conscious, and there was
no sign that he had been cut by the blade. "I'm okay, Daddy,
it doesn't hurt," Josh was protesting.
"Lie still, Josh, and don't talk," the adults told him as
they carefully carried him to the truck. He couldn't be
okay, Susan thought. She had felt the huge wheel go over
him. His lungs must be crushed, and as for internal
injuries..she didn't want to think. She had phoned her
mother to alert her church's prayer chain, and she knew word
was going out over the hills and hamlets. There was power in
prayer. But could it save her son's life?
The truck sped down the country road. Before they even
reached the store, Susan saw the Lifeflight helicopter fly
over them, and set down in the parking lot. As they turned
in, the paramedics were waiting, and in minutes they had
Josh ready to be airlifted. Susan watched the plane take
off, asking angels to circle it. As she and her husband
pulled out of the parking lot to drive to the hospital,
Susan noticed that the lot was almost full. People..people
she knew, and those she had never seen before, all alerted
to Josh's condition, she realized. They had come to the
store to offer silent support, just to let her know they
were praying. Tears streamed down her cheeks. God, God..
Joshua spent three days in the hospital while physicians
checked every inch of him. They discovered that his liver
had almost been cut in two, his lungs were bruised and two
ribs cracked. It was almost unbelievable that he did not
have more serious injuries, but these were troublesome
enough. And yet Joshua seemed to have no pain. "I want to go
home, Mom," he kept telling Susan. "I feel fine, honest."
"He seemed completely normal," Susan says. "After the first
night, he actually roamed the halls, looking for something
to do." The liver mended without surgery. All in all,
doctors felt he had been a lucky little boy.
Susan knew it was far more than luck. From the moment she
had asked for prayers, they had come. People met her at the
hospital, dropped off notes at her house, wrote letters from
faraway places, people from all faiths, all assuring her
that they were praying for Josh's healing. And one evening
Josh confirmed it. "God was with me," he told his mother.
"He was under the wheel, right with me."
God, and a host of angels, shielding him from injury. Susan
gives thanks every day.
Copyrighted 2003 by Joan Wester Anderson. For more stories
of God's love, check the website at:
www.joanwanderson.com.