Why Terrible Things Happen

There are bad situations which happen leaving pictures in our minds that we will never be able to erase. One such unfortunate experience became a reality to Sherri and me on Saturday. We had just left our daughter’s house and were headed home. I had driven about a block and a half, and I noticed a young boy, probably about fifteen years old, standing on the corner talking on his cell phone. As we passed him I heard a sound underneath my car, “Bump, bump.” Sherri yelled, “John Paul, you just ran over something.” I stopped the car, looked in my mirror, and saw a little dog lying in the street. When I opened my door I could hear the boy screaming hysterically. I could tell immediately that the little yorkie was dying.

I felt sick. What could I do? Sherri and I went over to the young man, but there was no way we could console him. It was as though he was not even aware that we were there. A neighbor and her husband came out, and the lady began talking to him and hugging him. Finally, after a few minutes his mother came, and she too was very shaken. By then the dog had died. Several people had gathered, and everybody was caught up in the emotion of this terrible situation. Some began telling me not to feel bad. There was nothing I could have done to avoid hitting the dog. The mother of the boy told me she knew it was not my fault. But still I did feel bad.

Why do these things have to happen? Why were these adults and this boy so shaken and so emotionally touched over the death of a cute little dog? The boy’s mother said that she had known that something like this would happen someday. They never put the dog on a leash. They just let him run. The young man had taken the dog out without a leash and was not paying any attention to him. He made a big mistake and his dog was killed. It was nine years old and was like a child to the family. They now are grieving because of the boy’s mistake, and because his parents had not properly taught him or set any rules about the safe care of that little dog.

Many people now have the picture of a boy’s dog lying in the street  in a pool of blood and the sound of his cries of anguish. Sherri and I will remember this, and we will have thoughts that we will wish we could erase from our minds. I will feel bad about this every time I think of it. I love dogs, and I would never want to be a part in the death of any creature. Some may think I’m making too much of this, but I can’t help feeling that way. I can’t help feeling bad about the whole thing even though no one seemed to blame me.

This is the way life is in our fallen world. We make mistakes, we sin and we suffer. We make mistakes, and our actions hurt other people. And events beyond anyone’s control occur and suffering and grief touch many lives.

This was not what God wanted for any of us. On Saturday no one planned for a sweet, small dog to die, but he did. All of the players in this unfortunate accident were hurt, some more than others. Maybe a few will understand what really happened, and why it happened. If only everyone could know that Jesus died so that everyone could escape this world where little dogs die and children die and adults die and bad things happen to people. Maybe some understand that we can go to a new world, a new heaven, where suffering, pain and grief will be no more. I’m looking forward to this place where all the terrible pictures in my mind will be erased forever. But until we do go to that wonderful place please put your pet on a leash if it is going to be near a street. I don’t wish that anyone would go through what Sherri and I experienced.