I've been kind of sore at God lately. Aiyana is such a wonderful and loving child, it's been hard to accept the fact she's so ill. Essentially, I think He could have at least picked someone more deserving of the honor of leukemia, say a world leader who committed genocide. It would have been nice to be able to say to each other, well there you go, we all know a bad seed deserves to suffer.
I happened to be watching teenagers the other day be released from school. They came in waves, spilling over the walkways and grassy slopes and pooled near the crosswalk ready to cross. They were anxious to get to wherever they were going and some had no plans to wait for the light. They stepped right out into traffic even though we were approaching at 45 miles an hour on a green light.
Oh they saw us coming alright. They looked straight at us before stepping into the lane of traffic and bee-lined for the other side. I watched heads shake all around me in the cars as we applied our brakes, astonished by their stupidity but even more by the fact they never even glanced back to see if we had stopped. They trusted completely that we would.
I've done my share of stupid things. Like the time I didn't wear a seatbelt for a year because I felt it infringed on my civil rights. Or the time I walked barefoot on a blistering hot day all the way home from the store and couldn't walk for a week. And I have a faint memory of walking pell mell into traffic without even looking, too, because I believed it was all about me.
Much as I'd like it to be otherwise, people are not invincible. We don't choose what things happen and sometimes it seems incredibly unfair. Having a loving relationship with God doesn't mean we don't have to play the cards we're dealt or that we have a magic shield to protect us from pain and suffering. What we can do is be strong and steady and offer each other a belief in life's miracles when life is wildly unpredictable. We have to have faith as a shield when we find ourselves having to step out into those dangerous lanes of traffic so we get to where we need to go.
I happened to be watching teenagers the other day be released from school. They came in waves, spilling over the walkways and grassy slopes and pooled near the crosswalk ready to cross. They were anxious to get to wherever they were going and some had no plans to wait for the light. They stepped right out into traffic even though we were approaching at 45 miles an hour on a green light.
Oh they saw us coming alright. They looked straight at us before stepping into the lane of traffic and bee-lined for the other side. I watched heads shake all around me in the cars as we applied our brakes, astonished by their stupidity but even more by the fact they never even glanced back to see if we had stopped. They trusted completely that we would.
I've done my share of stupid things. Like the time I didn't wear a seatbelt for a year because I felt it infringed on my civil rights. Or the time I walked barefoot on a blistering hot day all the way home from the store and couldn't walk for a week. And I have a faint memory of walking pell mell into traffic without even looking, too, because I believed it was all about me.
Much as I'd like it to be otherwise, people are not invincible. We don't choose what things happen and sometimes it seems incredibly unfair. Having a loving relationship with God doesn't mean we don't have to play the cards we're dealt or that we have a magic shield to protect us from pain and suffering. What we can do is be strong and steady and offer each other a belief in life's miracles when life is wildly unpredictable. We have to have faith as a shield when we find ourselves having to step out into those dangerous lanes of traffic so we get to where we need to go.
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