Learning from Loss
Imagine losing everything.
It’s bad enough worrying about losing all my WIPs to a computer crash, but after this past Monday, such anxieties seem pretty small scale.
You see, this past Monday, my husband’s sister and her family lost everything in a house fire. Everything but each other.
These things happen and we all wonder why. We plan ahead for catastrophes, insure ourselves out of a budget, and still watch it all come blazing down in forty minutes time. Years of pouring money and sweat equity into making a place a home, and just as the last room is being sheetrocked…the dreams go up in smoke.
Why does God allow these things to happen? Here’s what I think. To show us how good He is to us.
In every tragedy there’s a miracle or two. One of my blogging friends recently woke up to a home inches deep in water. Their toilet overflowed in the night, and the water just kept running. What a mess. Insurance kicked in and as the flooring was being replaced, they discovered that their home had mold behind the walls and beneath the flooring. Lots of it. A blessing in disguise.
In my sister-in-law’s case, their two story farm house fire is thought to have started in the basement, perhaps was even smoldering as she prepared her son for preschool. Less than thirty minutes after they left, their house was fully involved. The firefighters think that the smoke and fire traveled through the ductwork and enveloped the house in minutes. What if this had happened at night, with all of them asleep upstairs?
I learned a few things from this dear family’s loss. First, be as prepared as you can be. Go over a fire escape plan with your family. Keep your smoke alarms and heat detectors powered up. Get a fire box to keep your valuable papers safe. Picture negatives, videotapes and flash drives aren’t necessarily safe in these types of boxes, they can’t withstand the temperatures. A safety deposit box might be another option. Inventory the contents of your home, and double check your insurance policy. Thankfully sis and brother-in-law’s coverage is good. They not only have their home and contents covered, they’ve got a full year of rent coming to them as they rebuild…and a good chunk to aid in clean-up.
If you or someone you know goes through a tragedy such as this, be sure to contact the Red Cross. In this case, they sent a representative before the house was completely gone and gave the family a debit card to use on those needs not immediately covered by insurance. We’ve also discovered that there are appliance dealerships that give free appliances to families that have lost everything in a fire. It’s a tax write off for them. Thrift stores will open their doors and let you shop for free. And communities will throw fundraisers and showers and donate into emergency funds set up at the bank. Perhaps the best gift to this family was the empty storage building a friend made available for the mountains of donated items that keep pouring in.
None of us can say exactly why God allows hardships, but we can all agree that they strengthen us, they give communities a reason to rally around those hurting, and for awhile, they alter our perspective on what’s truly important. Life. Family. Faith.
It’s made me question my priorities. If my house was going down, what would I risk my life over rescuing? Definitely not my flash drives, or my wedding album or the girls’ baby books. Of course our first instinct would be to save our children, our spouse, ourselves.
So the next time I’m tempted to fragment over the out of control things in my life, instead I hope I’m able to keep the big picture in mind.
If I were to lose it all tomorrow, what would I do differently today?
