Imagine what it would be like to go on a trip and return to find your home obliterated by fire. Nothing left. Not a stitch of clothing, a piece of furniture, or any artifact of family memorabilia.
Lest you think this happened to Earl and me, let me reassure you. It didn’t. Instead it happened to our neighbors yesterday. Like us, they were out of town. But unlike us, they returned to nothing.
I’ll go to bed tonight feeling grateful that it wasn’t our home that was struck by lightning. But I’ll feel a little guilty too. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. And yet, if lightning really was the culprit what a random accident this was. It means it could have been our home.
Which brings me to my son Kevin’s situation earlier this summer. He was wakened in the night by the sound of police and ambulance sirens that stopped in front of his house and stayed for a couple days.
Turned out that some deranged man had knocked on the door across the street from where Kevin lives and asked for a glass of water. When the resident returned with it, this man clubbed him to death with a hammer.
There was no connection between the killer and the victim. When Kevin called me with this distressing news, he noted the killer could have knocked on my son’s front door. Knowing Kevin, he would have offered the glass of water too. And the results might have been similar. A chilling thought.
We can order our lives with appointment calendars and locks on our doors and doing the “right” thing. But we better not become complacent when it comes to fate.
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