Witness

I thought I would share a personal story of something that happened to me and my husband this Christmas morning. While it was a devastating event, it made me realize just how small we really are in relation to mother nature. Ok, let me explain... Brian and I had spent Christmas Eve with his family. They live in Pflugerville and so do we, so we don't have to travel very far. On this particular night, we left their house just before 1am to head back home (we never stay quite that late which makes this story a little more ironic). We were about 3 minutes from home and Brian asked me if I saw smoke out my window. I looked and said, "YES!" It was coming from just a few blocks away. We followed it to a house that looked like a the front porch had just caught on fire. Immediately, we wondered if anyone was inside so Brian began honking his horn hoping to catch the attention of anyone inside...no answer. He called the closest fire station (oh, I didn't mention that my husband is a Fireman for the Pflugerville Fire Dept.), parked the truck on the other side of the road and ran up to a window on the far side of the house. He banged on it, knocked out a small portion and yelled to see if anyone was inside. No answer. By this time, the entire front of the house was in flames and the neighbors across the street came out to see what was happening. They told us that the people who lived in the house weren't home...thank God. The fire truck arrived and this is what happened next.

For some reason, God called us there that night. We were meant to see the smoke, we were meant to call for help and these images were meant to be captured. It was a blessing that no animal or person was inside and believe it or not, the house was not a total loss.