Monday morning I wrote some letters and went to put them out by the mailbox, when I was informed by our church secretary that the mail-man had already come. I had just missed him. It was 10 a.m. I really wanted the letters to go out that day, so I decided to deposit them in the postal box at the end of our street. I noticed that traffic had been blocked off, but I assumed it was because of utility work being done.
As I approached the corner, I knew there was something far more critical and serious going on. Just moments earlier, the Weymouth police officer working the traffic detail at the utility site was struck and killed by a pick-up truck after its driver ignored a stop sign and sped through the inter-section, pinning the officer to the National Grid truck. It was a gruesome scene, and the officer was pronounced dead upon the ambulance's arrival at the hospital just a half-mile away.
The officer who was killed was only 34 years old. He leaves behind his wife and three children - ages 14, 9, and 6. No doubt what started out as a normal day for this family became a tragic one that will forever alter their lives.
The utility crew had just finished working, too. They were wrapping things up, getting ready to leave. Then in the blink of an eye - a single breath - a life is snuffed out. As I stood there at the intersection, I saw some personal effects where the officer had been standing. Perhaps he had been finishing up a cup of coffee ... or talking to one of the utility guys ... maybe getting ready to put in a call to his wife or the station. One second he's here, alive and well; the next second he's crushed between two trucks. Gone. Dead.
How many times do I walk to that street corner to mail a letter or walk to the gym? My boys probably walk to that street corner half a dozen times a day to grab a snack, drink, or gallon of milk (for Mom) at Cumberland Farms. How easily that could have been one of us struck and killed on a normal day, in a completely unanticipated moment.
This to me is a powerful reminder of how brief and unpredictable life is. It forces me to ask questions like:
- How would I live today differently if I knew it were my last day on earth?
- In what manner did I leave my home this morning? Were my last words ones of anger, frustration or rebuke? Or were they ones of love, affirmation, and encouragement?
- Are there any other relationships in my life that need to be mended or restored? Have I done my best to live peaceably with all men (Rom. 12:18)?
- Am I consciously, prayerfully, earnestly looking for opportunities to share the Gospel with the lost? The people that cross my path today may be gone tomorrow. Am I innocent of the blood of all men (Acts 20:26)?
- Have I allowed the tyranny of the urgent to crowd out the most important things in life?
- What about this very moment? If in the blink of an eye I was with my Savior, would He be pleased with what I was doing that split-second in time that He called me home?
Lord, "teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom" (Psalm 90:12).