Dear old Fury died suddenly on one January night some years ago. Resting innocently by the curb, he received a mortal head wound. These things happen so unexpectedly. Life is transient, and we need to be prepared for the swift and unpredictable turns life may take.

It does seem that a kindly providence intervenes at times and disrupts our plans for our own good. We had expected to have Fury with us for at least another year. We had already traveled 115,000 miles together, but Fury always seemed ready to go when we asked. It is true that there were times when he did not know when ? or how ? to stop. He suffered in cold weather, too. He had a radiator drip and could not hold his anti-freeze.

Fury had lived a good life. When he was very young he would occasionally come to a full stop without any warning. Once he had traffic backed up for a mile or two on Harwood Street in downtown Dallas at 5:00 P.M. A uniformed police officer and a young man, shoeless and with very long hair, joined hands to help Fury to the curb. He had that kind of effect on people. He seated everyone who entered without distinction, even tolerating beginning, teen-aged drivers.

We used Fury?s energy and efficiency to get us wherever we needed to go. We could steer him and drive him as long and hard as we wanted. We drive our cars here and there at will. Sadly, we may get the idea that we can control and use people in the same way.

The sadness I felt at the sudden loss of Fury brought to mind the words God spoke to Jonah when Jonah was grieving over the sudden death of a gourd vine that had provided him with shade from the heat of the sun: "You pity your automobile, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left?"

I also remembered that Jesus said something like: "If God so clothes the Explorer, the Camry, and the Hummer, which today are alive, and tomorrow are crushed into scrap metal, will he not much more care for you, O people of little faith?"

All of us are perishable and finite, O God. Like our automobiles, we, too, break down or run out of gas. Thank you for the power of your tireless Spirit at work in us. You renew us and keep us going so that we can take food to the hungry, a drink to those who are thirsty, love to those who are alone and discouraged, and the Good News of the Gospel to those who see life as hopeless and without meaning. You have promised, gracious God, that when our earthly bodies are worn out and useless, you will clothe us with new life and imperishable love in a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. In your providence, almighty God, take us wherever we need to go, for as long as you want us to serve, in the might and mercy of Jesus Christ, who never becomes out-of-date or obsolete. Amen.