I, on the other hand, wasn't enjoying the helicopters because I knew something terrible must have happened very close to our home. We live in a nice, quiet neighborhood and news helicopters don't just circle an area for over an hour just for fun.
I soon learned that a 15 year old boy was killed in a horrible skateboarding accident in the parking lot of the elementary school just outside our neighborhood. The boy's name was Kyle and he was very good at skateboarding. So good in fact that he had a sponsor. On Wednesday, he was doing a trick called, "skitching", which involves riding on a skateboard while holding on to a moving vehicle's bumper. Two of his friends were in the vehicle. Somehow Kyle fell from his skateboard and slid under the vehicle as it was moving. A Flower Mound SWAT team just happened to drive down the street shortly after the accident and someone flagged them down for assistance. Three paramedics were on board and immediately began to try to save the boy. Care Flight brought him to a Hospital but he did not survive.
My first thoughts were for the boy who died so young and so tragically. I feel sorry that his life was shortened, especially by doing something that he loved to do. Unfortunately it was his precious youth that led him to be naive and careless about this one fateful stunt. My heart aches for his parents. I can not imagine how they must feel after this loss. I'm somewhat familiar with skateboarders' lack of fear because my little brother was a great skateboarder in his younger days. He did some really impressive tricks which I enjoyed watching yet at the same time I would cringe until he was safely stopped on the ground. I don't know if he ever did any skitching but if I had to bet, I'd say he probably did. I'm so thankful that God watched over him all those years and kept him safe from harm. I don't want to even think about how something like this could have happened to him when he was only 15 years old.
Of course, I look at Nicholas and see a carefree, fearless spirit in him. I love it that he wants to experience everything in life and he has very few fears. Yet at the same time I want to forbid him from ever skateboarding and a whole slew of other things that I've, half-jokingly, told Stuart that we are never going to allow Nicholas to do. I worry about how to balance my protectiveness of him and desire to keep him close in order to keep him safe and still allow the need for him to soar free and expand his wings, to fly wherever his dreams take him. I truly pray that Nicholas develops and excels in whatever gifts and talents God has given him, even if that includes skateboarding, parachuting, joining the military, whatever. I just pray that Stuart and I teach Nicholas wisdom and good judgment during his younger years so that he will make wise choices in those more wreckless teenage years and throughout the rest of his life. And, of course, I pray that God keeps him close in those fearless moments.
"And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him." Luke 2:40
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