It didn’t turn out like he planned.
We were having fun with Addie in the pool in Panama City. Gracie, Jayme, Daniel, Gary, and I were sitting around the pool, playing shark with her, and enjoying the surprisingly cool breezes.
A serious-looking man and his 9-year-old son came in the pool area and settled in.
Addie and her little friend she had made wanted to go into the hot tub, which mercifully was cool, so in we went. The gentleman and his son were in there and we asked if it was OK if we joined them. “Sure.”
We started talking abut the children, and he began to tell me about his life. He had been a medic in the war in Iraq. “When I got back I couldn’t do it anymore. I had seen too much and it changed me. The blood. All the blood. And the wounded children.”
He told me about his first marriage and his children and how he had worked in the oil fields. “I think my being away from home all week and only home on weekends, was part of why our marriage failed.”
Then he told me about his new job and what he did. He said he had remarried and this was their son.
Meanwhile, Addie and I and the son and the man were throwing the little floating football to each other across the hot tub. He continued talking.
“Things haven’t worked out like we planned,” he said. “I didn’t really want to come to Florida, but I didn’t want my wife and her friend to come alone. Last night, we were going out to eat and my wife was driving. She pulled out at the intersection and another car T-boned us.”
“Oh, no!” I remarked. “Was everyone OK?’
“No,” he said. “My wife’s friend and her mother are in the hospital in surgery now. I brought our son here so he could have a little fun.
“And we were driving my wife’s mother’s car. It’s totaled. I don’t know how we’re going to get home.”
I asked him if he would like me to pray for them.
“Yes, sure,” he said. And he stood up.
He, his son, Addie and I joined hands and stood in a circle in the hot tub, and we prayed.
As we finished, he shared, “My wife is in the praise group at church.”
He had told me, “I had a bad feeling before we left for dinner. I made sure all the kids had their seat belts on.”
We do all we can to plan and be safe, but God is ultimately in control.
Be sure to be able to get back home, and make plans to reach your eternal home, too.
