In the blink of an eye, everything can change. It almost happened to me last night. I was this close to losing my parents. I’m still reeling from the possibility of it. And I have no idea what the fall out would’ve led to.
Let’s rewind a bit to a few hours before everything went down. I had come home from another day at school and was relaxing with the fam. We were helping out my friend from Denmark who was planning on going on an extended hiking trip. It was just another Thursday afternoon, nothing extraordinary.
I remember having to leave to help out Collide, a youth ministry I work with. I said my goodbyes to my family and friend, and started walking to the mall. When I turned the corner, I saw my dad’s Cadillac coming up the street. He pulled over and asked if I needed a ride. Of course I couldn’t resist, even though it was less than a 5-minute walk from my house. When he dropped me off, I told my dad I loved him and that I’d see him later on at home.
When I was walking upstairs to get to Collide, I couldn’t help thinking back to earlier on that day. I was rushing out the door, but I just felt that urge to tell my dad I loved him. I usually say, “I love you,” to my family members on a daily basis, but there are those times that I don’t when I’m trying to get out the door to get somewhere.
You see, my dad’s parents never said those three words to him during his entire lifetime. They definitely loved him, but showed him their love through different avenues. This is why my dad made it a point to tell us kids, “I love you,” at least three times a day.
Growing up, I went through different stages of how I reacted to him showing his affection this way. Even my mom. Sometimes I would mean it, other times I would just say it back just because.
But I didn’t realize that last night could’ve been the last time I said it to my family. When I was at Collide, apparently there was a man on the run and the U.S. Marshals, F.B.I., and HPD were after him. He crashed into a BMW near my house and took off on foot.
My mom had heard the car crash and came running out of our front house to see if anyone needed help. My dad came running down the stairs from our upstairs house to see where my mom went because he could hear that this was more than just a car crash going on. He told my friend to stay put in our back house and assessed the situation. All of a sudden, a man came running out of our neighbors yard into our yard. My dad went into a karate stance and they had a stand off. The man checked my dad’s hands to see if he had a weapon, and my dad did the same to him. The guy ended up shaking his head and said, “No,” then took off up our driveway. My mom was running from the other direction at this point, because she could see the F.B.I. and the police running down the street.
When the man got to the street, he pulled out a concealed weapon and shot at the police. The police were able to take him down though and no one got hurt.
I remember getting several phone calls and I had turned my phone on silent earlier so I didn’t see the missed calls until half an hour after the fact. I found out what had happened, met up with my brother who was also out, and we walked home together.
When we got near our house, it was mayhem. There were police cars everywhere and tons of U.S. Marshals, F.B.I., and police. We had to go the long way around and eventually got clearance to get to our house.
When I arrived home, my mom hugged me so hard. My dad was super emotional too. There were police that wanted to talk to my parents, along with detectives and a news reporter. It was a long and crazy night.
Once the initial shock settled down, we found out that the man had a gun on him and that’s when we started replaying everything in our heads. What if that guy decided to gun down my dad? What if he took my dad hostage? What if he gunned down my mom. What if.
All I can say is thank you, Jesus, for protecting my family last night. Things could’ve gone down so differently but it didn’t. The one thing I did learn though through this crazy experience was to appreciate each and every day. You never know when each day will be your last.
So when you say, “I love you,” mean it. Things can change in the blink of an eye.
