I narrowly escaped a fire in 1994. There was a gentleman doing repairs to our roof using an acetylene torch. He went to lunch and the torch fell over and caused the tarred seams of our steel roof to heat up and smolder. Over the course of the next hour or so the tar transferred that heat to the insulation above our false ceiling. By the time the A/C kicked on, there was enough heat built up to cause a fairly violent explosion in the dead space.
I will never forget that sound, and looking up to see flames shooting through a few missing ceiling tiles, one of which happened to be right above my office door which blocked the only exit. Our 10,000 square foot building filled with thick smoke within a matter of 10-15 seconds.
Thankfully I was not in my office or it's likely I would have been severely burned and/or killed. We canceled our usual organ class which is full of seniors because most of our employees were at the State Fair. The firefighters were gravely concerned when they arrived that everyone was out - a similar fire had killed 11 people at another retail store in 1978.
By the grace of God five of us got out with only minor injuries (mostly smoke inhalation) and nothing lost but inventory.
Fast forward twenty years.
My oldest son Zach was on his way to the gym. A truck lost control on I-70, careened across the median separating the interstate from the frontage road and slammed into two cars, one of which was the car behind Zach. A few feet the other way, or a light that stayed red for just a few more seconds and that truck would have hit Zach. Sadly the man in the car that was stuck was killed.
What if? What if I had been in my office when that fireball came through? What if Kelli had to raise Zach alone? The fire was three years before Seth was born so he literally wouldn't be.
What if Zach waited a few seconds to cross the intersection. What if one car would have gotten in front of him and his car was sitting in the space occupied by the Accord? I could be sitting at Woods Chapel at his funeral today instead of at work.
I'm so thankful those are "what-if" and not "it-is." Life is short and it can be over in the blink of an eye.
There's a line in Mat Kearney's song "Closer to Love" that says we're all just one phone call from our knees.
If you didn't get that call today celebrate. Give thanks. Because there is a day where that call will come.
