Thank God for life and that I’m able to share this story.
He’s an awesome God who deserves all the glory.
At about 8 pm on Friday, February 11, 2022, an incident had me flat on the ground. I could have been lifeless at that moment, but it was not my time to leave this earth; it was not time for me to die. After a long day at work, I decided to relax and watch one of my favorite African movies. After all, I was at home and since ‘there is no place like home’, I was feeling safe and secure. Furthermore, I’ve always felt that my home was a haven of peace and tranquility, as I’ve never been disturbed by neighbors or others. The community is so family-oriented that few nights I would unintentionally leave my keys in the door and no one enters. One morning a neighbor said he saw them in the door but didn’t call my attention to it. He said it was early in the evening and he thought I would return for them. He went on further to say how long he has been living in the community and how welcoming it has been since. Sadly though, the incident that took place that Friday evening made me think otherwise. Never again would I take anything for granted as nothing is guaranteed, not even life itself.
As I sat comfortably watching the movie, with no popcorn munching on, I heard ‘Pow!’ I knew it wasn’t from a scene in the movie so instantly, fright-and-flight hormone had me flat on my fat belly. Prior to getting flat, I had my feet on a large mat but when I heard the sound, it gave way and shortly after I was on the cold concrete. But who cared! When trouble comes pride needs to go aside. I’m even happy I didn’t lose any of my teeth nor damaged any of my body parts. What amazed me too was the way the mat moved quickly from under my feet, as if we were both competing for space to hide. Anyway, while on the ground, I felt like I was in one of Chuck Norris’ movies, hiding from gun-shots. I then crawled on my fat belly to where my boys were, due to my mom’s instinct, thinking it was my duty to protect them. I thought of protecting my dear children but how that would be done I just didn’t know. I thought of covering them with my body but that would have been impossible seeing they were teenagers with big bodies. They were no longer my little ‘babies’. And honestly, I was just too frightened to think of other protective measures. Surprisingly though, they were not as shocked as I was possibly because I was closer to the impact.
While crawling towards them, I heard another ‘Pow’ and right there and then I was convinced there was a shoot-out. My boys and I then started speaking softly about what may have taken place and how we would find somewhere safe in the house to hide. I then heard a knocking on the door but didn’t entertain it as I heard people arguing and crying simultaneously. At that moment, I thought the ‘shooter’ was after us so I became scared even more. We then turned off the lights and TV and quickly went upstairs and strangely, I peeped through the window with the hope of seeing who the ‘shooter’ was. I honestly didn’t want to look outside but did so due to the spirit of boldness – well only after my older son insisted that I do so. When I looked, I saw a lady crying and some neighbors staring directly at the window where I was standing and instantly, my thoughts ran wild. I wondered why they were looking and if one of them were the ‘shooter’, but my curiosity was only satisfied when the police arrived.
During the ordeal my younger son was agitated. He kept telling me to call 911 and after much deliberation, I acted accordingly. When the police arrived, we were overwhelmingly happy as only then we felt safe to open the door and to even go outside. After communicating what took place to them, they went over to the neighbor’s house to get more information. I was shocked at what the neighbors shared! Firstly, it wasn’t a gun-shot that I heard and secondly, there was a fight between a man and his wife and apparently, the man was running from her. It seemed they were close to my house when the lady threw something hard at him. He then ducked and it hit my front window glass. It was so impactful that it broke the thick glass. The second ‘Pow’ I heard was when more of the broken glass fell to the ground. After the police were through assessing the situation, they gave me a card with a case number and left. Shortly after, I rushed inside as I wasn’t sure if those two love-birds were at peace or they were still at war.
Finally, while being back inside the house, I emailed the landlord about the incident and he came by the following day to do his own assessment. He later replaced the glass and did not even ask the perpetrators for any assistance. I think they went scotch-free with not even a little warning from the police.
After reflecting on what took place, I have to be thankful that there was a blind on the inside of the window, because the hard object would have hit me due to where I was sitting. After it broke the glass it hit the blinds but by then it didn’t have any more power to get inside. Instead, it bounced off and then landed back outside.
We need to be mindful of our actions as they can impact negatively on innocent people, just as how I could have been hit. We are expected to live peacefully and not violently (Psalm 11:5).
