I took my kids to see Soul Surfer today. It's a movie about a young surfer, Bethany Hamilton, whose entire left arm was literally bitten off by a shark on October 31, 2003 when she was thirteen years old.
When the accident was shown in the movie, I began crying so hard! I remembered when my husband was in a tragic accident on September 16, 2005 and also when our dear friend, fourteen year old Haley Gans, was killed in a skiing accident on November 20, 2009.
I wept for Haley's family and I remembered, too, what it was like to be in the midst of what almost seemed surreal as Dan laid in the hospital and was near death.
The memory of me crying out to God asking for help, asking for a miracle, came back to my being.
Tragedy can happen in an instant.
Somehow, supernatural strength comes to those who experience tragedy and life moves on. I realized today, as memories of my own experience with near tragedy flooded back, that when people told me I was "so brave and strong," I only was brave and strong because God gave guidance and strength during that surreal time.
In the movie, it is made clear that Bethany Hamilton's faith and her family's faith were what got them through such a difficult time. I wonder now how I could have ever moved forward without God as Dan lay near death. I am thankful that I now know He is in control of all things.
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