Important reminders

When I was in the fourth grade, our house caught fire. The memories of it are vivid; like it happened yesterday. As we stood at a distance watching the fire department fight the fire, friends who’d gotten word of the tragedy were driving out to support us. I’ll never forget hearing my mom tell someone something to the effect of “It’s just stuff. Everyone is safe.”

That wisdom has come back time and again to remind me of what’s really important in life; people. People are important. People are valuable; not stuff. In the past week our area of Texas had nine tornadoes in one evening; billions of dollars of wrecked stuff, but no loss of life. In the same time, my son was in a car wreck. The car was totaled, but he’s safe. I don’t want to minimize the economic hardship such events cause people. But, in the grand scope of things, the cost of these things are nothing compared to the value of people. I hope I can learn that better so that I value people more consistently and treat them as such.