A Utah contractor was driving to a job site when lightning struck his truck and set it on fire right there on the highway. He walked away without a scratch. Hours later something his young son did left him more shaken than the lightning ever did.
Casey Pettus was heading for a work bid last Wednesday when his rear tire started losing air. He was hoping to just make it to a tire shop. Then the lightning hit.
“It didn’t feel like I hit anything, but just like my whole truck got hit and then, you know, a big flash of light,” he told KSL News.
He said it felt like a jolt of pressure pushing down on him and it took him a second or two to even understand what had happened.
His power steering went out right away. He had to fight the wheel just to get off the road safely in the pouring rain. Smoke started coming out of the dashboard, and within five minutes his whole truck was on fire.
He lost thousands of dollars worth of tools he needed for his job, but he got out safe, and that is really the main thing.
Utah Highway Patrol Cpl. Justin Faust said this was only the second time in his whole career he’d seen lightning hit a vehicle like that.
Honestly the fire isn’t even the part that got me. That evening Pettus was sitting on his deck with his family when his 9-year-old son walked up and handed him a wad of cash.
The boy had been saving up from a little trash can business he runs for neighbors, money he’d set aside for a dirt bike he really wanted. He wanted his dad to have it instead so he could buy new tools.
“I was so touched,” Pettus said, and you can hear his voice catch when he says it. “He’s like, ‘Here, dad. You could have this to replace your tools,’ and I just, in that moment, I’d never felt so loved.” Pettus turned the money down. He said insurance would cover it. But he won’t forget the offer.
A kid giving up his own savings for his dad without being asked, that says a lot about how he was raised. It says even more about what kids are watching and learning at home.
Casey Pettus walked away without a scratch, and I don’t believe that was luck. I believe that was the hand of God covering him. Our God is faithful. The reason any of us are still breathing today is not because of our own strength or our own plans, it’s because of His grace, and His grace alone.
Keep this family in your prayers as they get back on their feet.
WATCH: Dad Survived A One-In-A-Million Lightning Strike, But His Son’s Response Left Him Speechless
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