56 Now the sting of death is sin: and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast and unmovable; always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15: 55-58. Douay-Rheims
How this relates: The power of sin in this story is a law of physics: A projectile, in this case a speeding 3000-5000 pound vehicle with a flat trailer attached, comes sailing over the little crest of a hill before my mailbox can be seen, strikes and kills a 35 pound buff Cocker Spaniel running home not 4 feet from my driveway, and drags the body 30 feet weaving in the road so the body of that animal will be released from the double axel trailer.
The driver didn't have to drive like a bat out of Hades (as so many do up here in the mountains) at 12:15 AM or there about, as September 3rd was beginning. The driver could have stopped to render aid and comfort. Personally, I think he intentionally did not slow down and did not honk because he saw a 'target' in the road. NOW, don't go saying, Auntie Coosa, how can you say that? You don't live where I live. Many people here think of dogs and horses as expendable pieces of property. They don't get emotionally attached. Sometimes, the same people who think a 'bad' dog can be 'put down' with a gun at the owner's convenience, also beat their children and wives. You have to live here to know how wide-spread this type of aberrant behavior is.
The sting of death is sin: I should have leashed my dog and would have if he had ever gone into the street before. Something enticed him. Was it a piece of bread in the highway, tossed carelessly by the grade-schooler getting on the school bus? Was it an animal that ran across the highway? My dog was headed home when he was hit. The sting of death hurts so much that I am often overwhelmed with grief.
Yes, I sinned in not protecting my dog to the fullest way I knew how. I live with grief and a broken heart. Had the driver honked, slowed and I been able to grab my dog, he would never ever have been allowed off leash. That was the first time he ever went into the highway. And instead of him being alive and leashed, he's dead and buried.
The driver of the vehicle, on the other hand, lives knowing he or she is a hit and run dog-slaughterer. And a person who would hit a dog standing in the road rather than avoid the death of the animal, will be judged of God. No one was driving in the on-coming lane. The driver made a choice to kill my dog rather than honk the horn, slow down, and avoid my dog's death.
Second stage of grief is anger? I don't have to be angry. God knows. I have turned it over to Him to handle. I will be writing a letter to the editor of the local paper regarding drivers hitting 'targets' in the road.
I spent the better part of the afternoon near my Cocker Spaniel's grave and with his Godmama, who also grieves.
57 But thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment