An Intersection Named Grace

The most extravagant and unmerited example of grace in the Bible is Christ’s free gift of salvation. However, divine grace is often poured out in people’s everyday lives in ways that are not so apparent.

A few years ago, I went to Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton to meet a man named Carson Reid (not his real name). Carson appeared with another fellow who needed a ride to the GO train station.

After dropping the cellmate off, we headed for Cambridge, angling our way northwest on secondary highways. Eventually, we came to a remote rural intersection. While waiting for the light to turn green, Carson shared a story about an accident he had happened upon years before at this intersection.

That particular night, Carson was reading his Bible and sipping coffee in a Tim Hortons near Hamilton when three young men entered. They noticed Carson with his Bible and made fun of him. Carson ignored their insults.

Carson finished his coffee and resumed his drive home, eventually arriving at the same rural intersection where he and I had stopped. Four or five vehicles were pulled off to the side of the road and people stood staring at two badly damaged cars tangled in the centre of the intersection.

Carson grabbed a tire iron from his trunk and ran to the closest vehicle, broke the driver’s side window and unlocked the door. He helped the stunned driver get safely away from his car. Running to the second vehicle, Carson smashed the window, unlocked the door and pulled the unconscious driver to safety. Two passengers were trapped in the second car so he went back to rescue the person in the front passenger seat. By this time, another man came to help while Carson guided the third passenger away from the wreck.

Less than a minute later both cars began burning and were soon engulfed in flames. When Carson had a good look at the occupants of the second vehicle he was shocked to see the three young men from Tim Hortons who had mocked him and his Bible.

I marveled at the grace of God. The Lord had saved the lives of four people through Carson’s heroic effort. The Lord had mercifully spared the lives of the very young men who had laughed and mocked Carson for reading the Bible.

My heart had been touched and my faith enlarged by hearing Carson’s inspiring story — a story I would probably never have heard had it not been for his cellmate needing a ride that eventually took us to that remote rural intersection.

—David Brown is a community chaplain with the Fellowship. He serves in the Cambridge, Ontario, area helping isolated people struggling with poverty, substance abuse, physical, mental, emotional issues, and those who have been imprisoned.