I saw a dead body on the road on the way to the Cairo airport today. It was covered up - only partially, and very pathetically - with a few towels. The police were on the scene directing traffic around the site of the accident. As best we could tell, it was the result of a car hitting a pedestrian, though a pedestrian never should have been crossing that road. It's a four-lane (five in a pinch) major highway/freeway.
The thing is, for all they preach about road safety in the Middle East, I've never actually witnessed a fatality here, until today. I've seen car accidents. I've seen car accidents happen. Heck, Jeremy was IN a car accident once in Damascus. But to have the body right there on the road...well, I've never seen that.
Unfortunately, Miriam caught a glimpse. And she's old enough now to know the most awkward questions to ask. So right there in the taxi, we had a discussion about what happened ("he didn't stop, look, and listen") (simplistic, I know, but what would you have said?), what our body does when it dies, what the man's family will do, and whether they'll ever see him again.
That was the best part of the discussion, when we got a little bit into the resurrection of Jesus Christ and how we will all be resurrected, too. I was glad to be able to teach my daughter that the man on the road would one day live again and so would his family, and they can be together.
I confess I didn't expect to be giving that lesson to my 4.5-year-old in the back seat of a taxi on the way to the airport in Cairo, Egypt, but there it is.
The thing is, for all they preach about road safety in the Middle East, I've never actually witnessed a fatality here, until today. I've seen car accidents. I've seen car accidents happen. Heck, Jeremy was IN a car accident once in Damascus. But to have the body right there on the road...well, I've never seen that.
Unfortunately, Miriam caught a glimpse. And she's old enough now to know the most awkward questions to ask. So right there in the taxi, we had a discussion about what happened ("he didn't stop, look, and listen") (simplistic, I know, but what would you have said?), what our body does when it dies, what the man's family will do, and whether they'll ever see him again.
That was the best part of the discussion, when we got a little bit into the resurrection of Jesus Christ and how we will all be resurrected, too. I was glad to be able to teach my daughter that the man on the road would one day live again and so would his family, and they can be together.
I confess I didn't expect to be giving that lesson to my 4.5-year-old in the back seat of a taxi on the way to the airport in Cairo, Egypt, but there it is.