January 19th

It was a beautiful Saturday.  My son's birthday was coming up and the weather was unseasonably mild.  Then my cell phone rang and it was a work call.  A crew leader was hysterically talking about pine needles, trucks and 485.  Sounded strange, but it sounded as if he said the truck and the pine needles were in the middle of the highway.  So off I went. 

Sure enough, the trailer had tipped over as the truck was coming down the on-ramp.  As I pulled up, the trailer was on its side, pine needles everywhere, 3 state troopers, highway emergency unit, and some shaken up employees.  The traffic was backed up for a few miles and the interstate was reduced to only one lane.  Then the police shut the on-ramp as well to clean things up. 
The driver of the truck said that the weight shifted and as he was coming around the curve, he felt the trailer start to shake then he looked in his mirror and saw the trailer on its side behind him.  A hundred bales of needles strewn everywhere and everything was a mess.  But with the chaos that was around, there was one message common with everyone.  No one was injured. 
The state trooper said it.  The IMAP highway safety guys said it.  The driver said it.  No one was injured.  It could have been catastrophic, but it wasn't. 
As everyone was cleaning up, the trailer flipped back upright, the on-ramp opened back up, and everyone getting back to their busy days, and there it was.  I looked down on the side of 485, right on the shoulder, next to years of debris and trash, there was a reminder from you Lord.  The Penny just stared at me as much as to say "give thanks for the workers, give thanks for the police, give thanks no one was injured, and just give thanks for Him." 
I picked up the penny, said a small prayer for thankfulness and safety, and went back to our busy Saturday afternoon.  Thank you Lord for putting this say back in perspective.  Amen.