Moments of Impact

If any of you have seen "The Vow" lately with Channing Tatum you will know what he was talking about when he says "moments of impact". He talks about how one moment can change your life forever. We saw a car on fire on Saturday night down in Kemah that helped me keep my ticket in perspective but what happened the following day was completely humbling. I was getting ready for church as I heard a siren go by our back window. When a second one went by I decided to see what was going on. I opened my window to see a huge amount of black smoke billowing up behind us from our neighbor's house. There ended up being 16 emergency responders on the scene and took almost an hour and a half before the fire was completely put out. These pics were taken from my bedroom window.

As we were watching a couple things happened. We met this single old lady who lives a couple blocks away. I've noticed her before as she was out in her yard. She is trying to sell her house and I've seen her working out front a time or two and "noticed" her. She walks slow. She looks frail. I remember thinking that the first time. She struck up conversation easily and it turns out she has buried two sons and a husband all in the last four years (a 3 year span) and lives by herself, with no family around. :(!!! She was crying as she was telling me about her losses. My heart instantly sank. I don't think moments of impact are random or coincidental. 

As we told our new friend we would visit her soon we came back "home" to normal everyday life and had lunch. WE HAD A HOUSE TO COME HOME TO. Do you ever think "life's not fair"? On Saturday I could have easily thought that exact thing. I woke up and did service that was completely hard and inconvenient. I had a MILLION (and five) other things to do but I chose to do what I felt was right and that same night I got a ticket for registration that was late, not because I wasn't responsible enough to pay it on time but because I didn't have the extra money in January. That could have been unfair. The truth is I had broken the law. I was in violation of having expired tags. You wanna know what's not fair? Out of our entire neighborhood yesterday only ONE FAMILY was without a home. Only one family was left standing on a street in their pajamas while EVERY OTHER FAMILY went back home. That isn't fair. Life is very hard. I remember one thing very clearly about growing up and my mom would always tell me "life's not fair". Since I've become an adult I've added a phrase to the end of that sentence "life's not fair; but eternity will be". I know our Heavenly Father puts people in our paths for a reason. I know HE is aware of this family and how devastating this fire is for them. I feel helpless. I'm grateful for the power of prayer. 

You never know what will happen.