She Was Stuck in the Same Traffic
The anchor verses are Genesis 2:18 · Exodus 18:4 (NIV).
On Saturday, Karollyn and Nate were trying to reach a San Francisco hospital when traffic stopped in Golden Gate Park. Their daughter, Cielle Ray, was born beside the road. Mother and baby were reported well.
Katie Higgins was caught in the same traffic. She had trained as a doula years earlier. When Nate asked for help, she came to Karollyn’s side. Other strangers helped too. Paramedics parked away from the scene and ran to reach them.
She was stuck in the same traffic.
That is the detail I keep returning to. Somebody else’s delay became a place where she could offer care.
I do not know why those people were there together. I will not say GOD arranged a dangerous situation to make a point. The gratitude this family feels does not require an explanation for every part of what happened.
And a birth story lands differently for some readers. If you have lost a child, you do not owe this story a smile. Your grief belongs here too.
There is a sentence in Genesis that I hear differently beside this account.
After the repeated goodness of creation comes something GOD calls not good:
The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Genesis 2:18, NIV.
The passage speaks specifically about the man and the woman. It is not a verdict that an unmarried person is incomplete. But it brings me back to something I can forget when I am trying to manage everything myself: receiving help is part of being human.
Before the disobedience in the next chapter, there is already a need for companionship.
And helper is not a small word.
In Exodus, Moses explains the name of his son Eliezer:
“My father’s God was my helper; he saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.”
Exodus 18:4, NIV, excerpt.
The NIV footnote gives the meaning of Eliezer as my God is helper.
Moses names help received. The word does not place the helper beneath the one who needs it. Here, the helper is GOD.
That is enough to make me reconsider how quickly I apologize for needing somebody.
The help in Saturday’s story took several forms. A stranger nearby. People willing to respond. Emergency workers making their way through an obstruction. There is room to be grateful for all of them.
It leaves me thinking about who has been sitting beside me in the gridlock, unnoticed.
Somebody reading this is on the worst day of a familiar route.
The appointment you thought would be routine. The conversation you have had a hundred times. The ordinary morning when everything stopped, and the resources you usually rely on no longer felt sufficient.
Nothing here promises a helper in the next car. Some people ask and wait. Some people receive too little support. Their loneliness is not evidence that they have failed at faith.
But I can take the need for companionship seriously. I can ask for help before I have found the perfect words. I can notice somebody else’s difficulty without assuming I already understand it. I can offer what I am able to offer and make room for the people whose skills are needed.
Being nearby is an opportunity to pay attention. It does not make me the answer to every need.
Perhaps today the question is simply this: who is close enough for me to notice, and have I actually looked?
And when I am the one who needs help, can I let somebody know?
I am not here to prove myself. I am here to make HIM visible.
🙏 To Karollyn, Nate, and Cielle Ray, and the days of getting to know one another ahead.
🙏 To Katie Higgins and the strangers who offered care in the middle of their own interrupted afternoon.
🙏 To the paramedics who left their ambulance and ran to reach the family.
🙏 To the one remembering a child they did not bring home. May you have room to grieve and people willing to stay beside you.
🙏 To the one still waiting for help. May somebody hear you, and may we become more attentive to one another.
Grace and Peace.
Sources: San Francisco Chronicle, September 21, 2026 · San Francisco Standard, September 20, 2026 · Genesis 2:18 (NIV) · Exodus 18:4 and footnote (NIV). Scripture quotations: New International Version (NIV). The Exodus quotation is an excerpt.