Have you ever experienced something that had minimal long-term effect, but made a huge impact on you, never-the-less?

I experienced one of those events last night.

The fire truck was going down our street with the lights on, and then it stopped.  Just two houses down and across the street from me. I know all of my immediate neighbors, so I know that in this house is an elderly lady who has lived there pretty much since the day we moved in, over twenty years a go.

I stepped outside to find out what had happened, and I saw a young man and lady embraced in each others arms. Then I heard the sound. The sound of agony, and pain and torment, all rolled into one.

A sound I’m all too familiar with…the sound of the pain of death.

I stood on my front step for a moment, I knew it was bad, but what was it?  Then the ambulance drove up to the house. It stopped. Someone got out, and within seconds the driver was back in the vehicle, and the ambulance left.  There was no need for it to be there, there was no life to save, the life was gone.

A life taken all too soon, by her own hands, but it wasn’t the elderly lady, it was a young lady who was renting a room from the elderly lady.  She apparently had lost all hope, and in her despair, she took her own life.

It was so painful as I stood there and saw her children trying to wrap their minds around what they had just seen and found out.  I don’t know them, but I know the pain and the anguish they were experiencing. I know the gut-wrenching feeling, the unfathomable anguish. I know that this is not only going to effect their lives, but it is also going to have a huge impact on them….for the rest of their lives.

There was absolutely nothing I could do to help them.  I couldn’t bring her back to them, which I know is all that they really wanted.  I couldn’t take that awful heartache and pain away.

I could only pray for them, and so I did.  I prayed that God would wrap His strong arms around them, and bring them a peace and a comfort that only He can give.

A peace and a comfort that I am also very familiar with.

And so it is, on this “Thankful Thursday“… I am once again thankful for so many things…but I am especially thankful for the love and support of my family and for the strong arms of my God.

“Riches take wings, comforts vanish, hope withers away,but love stays with us. Love is God.” – Lew Wallace