Recently a friend of my family was hit by a car on his morning walk. I wasn’t close to this family friend, but his passing struck a chord within me. I suppose this sort of thing happens whenever you hear of a tragic death; the passing of someone on what seems like an ordinary average day. As we observe tragedy, we are forced to reconcile our perceptions and confront the reality of death. As I’ve sat and contemplated a couple specific thoughts came to mind.
Oftentimes we live today with an expectation of tomorrow. That we will have life. That we will wake up with breath in our lungs and blink our eyes open to the cool morning colors of a new day. We will wake up next to the ones we love tomorrow. We will go to work tomorrow. We will drink our one cup of coffee tomorrow. We will watch our favorite football team tomorrow. We will have tomorrow what we had today. If there’s any fruit in tragedy, it’s that it forces our eyes open to the fragility of our lives. As we observe our fragility, the miracles of daily life we often dismiss as ordinary emerge with vivid color. When we live in remembrance of this reality, gratitude becomes natural and we discover there is no such thing as an ordinary day.
When our concern is with tomorrow, we see people as obstacles in our way as opposed to invaluable persons made in the image of God. At the grocery store, at work, at home, people become objects to be circumvented. However, when our vision is drawn back to today, we can’t help but look people in the eyes with patience in our hearts. Our speech becomes filled with gentleness as we’ve come to see the gift of today.
