"You Never Think It’s Going to Happen to You"
February 13, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
I cannot imagine how devastating it would be for any family to lose a loved one in a plane crash, the way the Eckert Family lost Beverly in last night’s crash of Continental Express’s flight 3407 in Buffalo. Even less, though, can I imagine how traumatizing it must be for them given that on 9/11 Beverly’s husband, Sean, perished on the 105th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center when it collapsed after the second hijacked plane struck.
According to one news report, Beverly was “traveling to Buffalo for a weekend celebration of what would have been her husband’s 58th birthday. She also had planned to take part in presentation of a scholarship award at Canisius High School that she established in honor of her late husband.”
One woman, a family member of another passenger on Flight 3407, said: “You never think this is going to happen to you . . . It always happens to somebody else, and you see it on TV.”
So true. Which is why this is a good time for us all to ponder the words of James 4:13-15:
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain’; whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that.'”
The families and friends of those killed in last night’s crash are reeling with grief right now. Let’s pray today for the repose of the souls of those who died and that the grace of the Lord’s consolation would strengthen and comfort those who are grieving.
