The voice on the other end of my cell phone was anxious. “Dad,” said my daughter, “I’ve been in an accident…. I’m on the freeway.”

Strange how, just a few minutes earlier, I’d said a prayer of thanksgiving that none of us in the family was hurting from an accident. A short piece on the car radio had observed how the holidays often accentuate our pain. The physical example was a car accident, and the bruises endured through the observer’s holiday time. The spiritual application was the unseen pain accentuated in those who had lost a loved one or experienced other trauma near a holiday.

Now we had an accident. “Call 9-1-1,” I told her. I’ll be right there.

Her car. Another vehicle. Airbags inflate. Other vehicle flees. Daughter manages a safe stop against the median, barely off the fast lane of a four-lane freeway.

Was she OK? Well, her chest hurt a little from the air bags. Thank God she wore her seatbelt.

But she may have some pain this holiday. So may those in four other cars, victims of supplementary accidents from closing two lanes of the freeway.

Her car looks very said, but she’s OK. Just sore (and probably sorer this morning).

Why do these things happen? One reason might be to remind me that people are hurting this season. Their expectations of the season may make them hurt more. Their loss of joy may be compounded by others’ apparent happiness.

They need a hope more than ever. I pray they find it in front of their face — in the Christ of Christmas. He was born into a world of hurt, for just such moments as these.