Four weeks ago our neighborhood was rocked with a suicide attempt. The family in the house located in our backyard has three sons. The youngest son is the same age as my son Mike and he tried to take his own life. Although the two families aren’t very close we did know the young man fairly well because he was over to visit and play sports with Mike on many occasions as they grew up next to each other.
We live on a cul-de-sac and all the families on the cul-de-sac are very close. We don’t know the other families within the neighborhood nearly as well. Since this family lived on the street behind us we knew the kids but not the parents. It is a sad fact that we now regret.
That is the background that you need to understand before I tell you the rest of the story.
Last Saturday I went to work out and when I came home the cul-de-sac was empty. I went in my house and turned on the TV. Well I stood watching football in my sweaty clothes and holding my shoes I thought to myself there was something I needed to get from car in the garage.
So in my socks I went to the garage to get it.
When I got to the garage and opened my car door I looked in my car and wondered why I had come outside. Do you ever have that experience? It happens to me quite often. Many people attribute it to old age but my teenaged kids admit that it happens to them as well.
So there I was wondering why I was looking into my car. I noticed that Ben Petersen, a high school student that lives two doors down the street, had come outside to clean out his car.
All the information that we had received about the young man that had tried to take his own life and was now in a coma had come from Ben. You see Ben had gone to visit the young man in the hospital every day. Every day!!! I was impressed how Ben was handling the situation. I thought somebody should let Ben know.
But for now I was standing in the garage trying to remember why I had come outside in the first place. As I looked in the car and moved everything trying to trigger my memory I wasn’t getting anywhere. No matter how hard I looked I couldn’t figure out why I had come to the garage.
Several times I looked at Ben as he cleaned out his car. (He seemed to know what he was doing and why he was there!)
Finally I decided to go over to Ben and get an update on my backyard neighbor. As I feared the young man was expected to die in the very near future. As of Thursday he was taken off life support and had no brain activity but was breathing on his own.
It was a tragedy to say the least. But even through the awful ordeal Ben had faithfully gone to the hospital every day. I ended our conversation by telling Ben how impressed I was with his visiting the hospital and telling him how commendable I thought he had been.
Then still in socks and stinky workout clothes I walked back to my garage. Stopped at my car one last time to try to remember why I had gone outside in the first place. But nothing came to my mind.
Now I am not a complete idiot. I have figured out why I went outside. (To talk to Ben.) But I never did discover the actual earthly reason.
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
I am not suggesting that every time I go someplace and wonder why I am there it is a divinely inspired event but I know that last Saturday it was.
Praise the Lord.
***I would like to close the blog by letting you know that yesterday our neighbor died and would like to ask that you keep the family in your prayers. They have suffered a great loss that as going to be a long struggle. ***
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