Last Monday, June 22, I returned from a weekend in Washington, DC. My flight left around noon out of Washington's Reagan National Airport, so I got on the Metro Rail red line at Silver Spring around 9 AM, and rode the subway to the airport. The journey, like my weekend, was uneventful, and little did I suspect what was to occur later that same day.
Hours later, that same red line was the scene of a deadly train wreck. Unsuspecting passengers sat, as one Metro Line train plowed into the back of another near the DC/Maryland line during the evening rush hour. The many "fail-safe" devices designed to prevent such an accident malfunctioned, as the rear train jackknifed, falling on top of the other, in a frightening wreckage of tangled metal. Emergency crews rushed to the scene of the worst accident in 33 years for DC's Metro Rail system. The result was nine people dead, including the operator of the rear train, as well as scores hospitalized
This wasn't supposed to happen. The train's computerized systems were supposed to prevent this kind of accident. One passenger reported that the train stopped briefly and re-started just before the crash. Obviously, something went seriously wrong, even as the operator of the doomed rear train apparently pressed down on the emergency brake, just prior to the impact.
We at GN Magazine extend our sympathies to the families and friends of those who lost their lives, and those injured, in Monday's accident. You are in our prayers.
The accident struck home for me, because of that uncomfortable coincidence. I remember as I sat in the rail car, looking out the window, a thought drifted through my mind: "I wonder what would happen if the computers didn't work right?"
Of course, there's danger everywhere. Lives can be lost, and are lost, in sicknesses, traffic accidents, street crimes, train wrecks, airplane crashes, and wars. Human life is frail and subject to unforeseen events, isn't it? As King Solomon wrote: "Time and chance happen to them all" (Ecclesiastes 9:11, New King James Version). The Apostle Peter put it this way: "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away." He then goes on to say "But the word of the Lord endures forever" (1 Peter 1:24-25).
Human life comes and goes, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. And that Word tells us there's more to human existence than just a brief physical lifespan. Almighty God, our Creator, has a purpose in the life of every human being. Isn't it time you learned about that purpose?
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