Monday nights with Jimmy

We had the most horrible scene happen on our culdesac a few weeks back. I was making dinner in the kitchen with Todd, and Austin was playing at our feet. Austin was getting a bit bored, so I decided to go downstairs and call my mom for a second. It maybe was 5 minutes after all.

When I came back to the kitchen, Todd stood at the window looking out calling my name. My neighbor's car was parked directly in front of our driveway with two Park Ranger cars behind her. (We live near a large park) As I went outside, I saw 5 police cars lining our street. I hurried around my friend's car to the driver's side to see what the problem was just as a policeman was throwing my friend to the ground. Her face was contorted on the hot black asphalt as blood ran into her eyes. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

I told the three policeman surrounding her and holding her down, "This does not look good". Which I repeated 3 times. One of the officers came to me and told me to back away. I stood there a bit stunned as I repeated my phrase. He replied that "this" didn't look good either, and he lifted his shirt to reveal a gun tucked in the back of his pants.

There was a mom and son whom I didn't recognize standing a distance away, and they filled me in on the flat tire my friend had and the offer of help they gave. Unfortunately, my friend was drunk and got back in her car. She weaved down the road and hit another curb with the other tire and popped that one as well coming to a stop in front of my house.

This gal is my older sister's age (10 years my senior) and has been a close friend of my sister's over the last 50 some years. She was a deputy at one point in her life, thus she always carried a gun. I'm sure she was just taking it out to show the officers, but being drunk, she must have done it in a way that was a bit alarming to the men.

I rang my neighbors bell. This frail old man of 86 came out with a look of horror as he witnessed what was going on in his front yard. His wife was being cared for by his daughter. She is 90 and suffers Parkinson's disease and Alsheimers. Now what was he to do. Within a matter of hours, his daughter was taken to jail and his wife was put in the hospital.

They are both still there today. This frail old man cries as he gives me updates about his family. I have visited him, celebrated his birthday with all our neighbors, and check in on him daily. But, I have wanted to do a little more.

After reading Lysa Terkeurst's blog I decided to have Monday night dinners with Jimmy.

His daughter is facing up to 19 years in jail, and his wife may never walk through their family threshold again. If you are the praying type, please add this family to your list. Only God can give us the grace to walk through the fire in order for us to be made into gold. We don't know what the future is, but we do know who holds the future.