Life is Unpredictable

Sounds of tyres screeching, followed by a dull thud, then the non-stopping blare of a horn broke the stillness of the late morning.  Exiting her nest, the Swallow rushed out to the corridor overlooking the cross junction nearby.  The horrific result of a four-vehicle collision greeted her.

A delivery truck was partially lying on its side.  Its container had crushed the driver's side of the white car next to it.  A black car had jumped the divider and was head to head with a gray car.  Policemen, with patrol cars, were already at the accident site and taking control of the traffic.  From the sight of a policeman carrying a white cloth with him, the Swallow deduced that there might be a fatality.

Paramedics arrived shortly after and conducted checks on the victims of the accident.  The driver of the delivery truck was carried, motionless, in a stretcher to a waiting ambulance.  Another two people, a boy and a woman (his mother?), who were initially sitting at the side of the road when the Swallow first saw them, were guided to the same ambulance.  A second ambulance, which arrived a few minutes later, ferried the driver of the black car and another victim.  All this time, the blare of the horn had not stopped.

Firemen in a fire truck, firemen in red rhinos (aka light fire attack vehicles) and firemen on motorbikes arrived too.  The horn stopped its blaring only when the firemen removed the body of the driver from the white car.  The body was bundled up in the white cloth and placed on the grass patch at the side of the road.  A blue police tent was erected above the body.

The Swallow did not continue looking at the gruesome sight after that, but two hours later, when she had to run some errands, she saw several firemen still at the accident site, trying to get the blood stains off the road.  Her mate reported to her that all he could see, on his way home from work several hours later, was a broken divider.  For anyone else who was returning home from work but had not heard an account of the accident, all would have seemed normal.  For these, life would go on as usual.  However, for the Swallow who saw the after-effects of the accident, for her family who heard the account of it, and for those who read this post, it is a grim reminder that life is unpredictable.

Isaiah 40 : 6 - 8 (NKJV)
The voice said, "Cry out!" and he said, "What shall I cry?"  "All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass.  The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever."

Hebrews 9 : 27 - 28 (NKJV)
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgement, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.  To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.