Last night I dashed out to the local CVS to get some candy. I admit it. A quick trip, three miles or less.
As I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed a car, different make but similar style and color to mine, parked in the same corner I was headed. Then I noticed something else. The license plate number was almost identical, save for one number. Instead of an eight, hers was a zero.
A second later the driver of this car appeared. An attractive yet otherwise unremarkable young woman carrying a prescription and another small bag (maybe candy, who knows?). Yet it got me to thinking.
What if she’d just robbed the place? In the rush and panic that would ensue, what if someone mistook my car for hers?
Now that’s my active imagination, no doubt. Here’s the problem: these things do happen. Given that she had long blonde hair and was clearly a good twenty years younger than me, chances are I wouldn’t suffer the worst. Still, in the world we live in today, I could.
The odds are worse for minorities, and we’ve all seen the stories. I remember one particularly troubling report on a news magazine, perhaps Dateline, of a man who was imprisoned for nearly 30 years for a crime he didn’t commit. Some might say, well, maybe he didn’t commit that crime, but surely he was guilty of something just as bad. Only in this case, there was no evidence of that.
He could have gotten out on parole years earlier if he’d confessed and shown remorse, but he refused, saying the only thing he had left was his name. I hope he was able to find peace once he was released, but odds were still against him after all those years of incarceration.
I hope others helped him find dignity, because he’d lived a long time without it.
We learn when we’re young that life isn’t fair. Yet we can’t live life with a constant awareness of our alibi for that moment or our excuse for doing something others might find odd. That, in and of itself, is going to raise red flags for some.
Why are our lives at times devoid of justice and peace? I don’t know. I don’t understand the imbalance in the world. But I do believe in a God who is just, even if we can’t comprehend how or why.
And that’s my peace of mind.
Photo Credit: ©Anna – stock.adobe.com
My World With Words 
Food for though & how weird to see that much similarity with the car right wnere you were going!
Re the 30 years wrong imprisonment, have you read Just Mercy (Bryan Stevenson)?
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What a coincidence you should mention that book. We just completed a study of it at my church for Lent. I’m still absorbing all we read and discussed.
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Just Mercy sounds interesting. I think we all have moments when we find ourselves constructing an alibi for something completely innocent. I work in a store and people “confess” to me about stuff that’s no big deal. They ate some of the cookies before they got to the checkout, or something similarly trivial. I used to question this (mentally) but now I figure they’re just establishing that they’re not bad people. (The serial shoplifters don’t get pangs of conscience, believe me.)
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I understand. Sometimes a clerk will ask if I want a bag for something small, and I may say yes, but I always make sure I have the receipt visible. Anybody who’s trying to shoplift wouldn’t even bother to try that. Just Mercy is thought-provoking.
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I too struggle when I hear or read of someone who has been falsely accused and/or jailed for something they did not do. How do you make that right? You can’t. As well, I totally agree with your thought even though we don’t get how God “handles” these situations, we trust in the big picture. Growing up, I felt like questioning God was a no-no…but I’ve come to believe doing that is healthy. It doesn’t make you less of a believer – it shows you’re engaged and looking to make the most of your connection.
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I’ve come to realize that questioning events doesn’t equal questioning God. I still believe in God as God, but I don’t understand why things happen the way they do. I don’t think that’s wrong.
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