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A Burglary

by Cheryl Ann Smith

By November 19, 2018November 23rd, 2023No Comments

This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant

About a year and a half ago, we were burgled. A man walked in our front door, up three flights of stairs, past the kitchen where Nikola was cooking our lunch, up to the office and bedrooms, where he took every last bit of money he could find.

On the way out the door, he encountered Sara, who thought he had slipped into our chapel to pray. That’s not unusual: it’s why we’ve always kept the front door open. It also allows the mailman to put a package inside the front door, and our friends to just enter our home.

This stranger didn’t quite feel right to Sara (perhaps it was all our money stuffed into his jacket), but she gave him the benefit of the doubt, introduced herself, offered a little tour, and invited him upstairs for a cup of tea. He said he had to move his car first and then would return. He never did.

Two hours later, we discovered the theft. I phoned the police, and the responder was so kind and promised to send someone around quickly. An officer arrived soon, and even as he was entering our home, word was coming that a man had been arrested who in the end turned out to be the thief.

Four hours later, after thorough, painstaking questioning, the officer left to make way for a CSI agent (Crime Scene Investigator). Both men were professional, compassionate and given to their work.

We are grateful that none of us encountered this man “in the act”, where he might have resorted to violence to escape. Money was taken, but no one was hurt. And although we lost dollars, we gained coinage for prayer.

Everything that happens to us, no matter how upsetting, can be turned into prayer for other victims or for those who commit crimes.

“Don’t waste suffering,” a former mentor used to teach me. “Put into God’s hands, it can become grace for others”.

Obviously, when there has been a profound violation, the healing process takes a long time and cannot be instantly wished or prayed away. But praying for the perpetrator even by sheer will, aids the healing.

It was an eye-opener to spend those hours with the police. As the first one was investigating the scene, I could hear the dispatcher talking to other officers: somewhere there was a hostage situation involving a young boy.

“We want him back safely”, she said. A while later someone else was directed to a bridge where a man was threatening to jump to his death.

Caution was needed. I realized that the police constantly hear, see, touch, taste tragedy and darkness. We need to pray for them.

“Why don’t you have someone with you? I thought you were supposed to work with a partner,” I asked one of the officers, showing my profound knowledge of police protocol from detective fiction!

“We don’t have enough people on the force to allow for that” was the reply.

That was sobering: these dedicated men and women are often exposed to danger without the protection of a partner. They have long hours, sometimes working into the night. I thought of their families, waiting anxiously at home, afraid for their loved ones. We need to pray for them.

And what of firefighters, EMTs (Emergency Medical Personnel), and their families? We pray for them now.

And what of this man who entered our home and took from us? He too has become coinage for prayer. I asked for his name, so that we could pray for a person and not equate him with his act.

Our intruder is in his mid-fifties and has lived off and on (more on) in prison. It seems this is all he knows. What a sad life! He has now pleaded guilty to a string of burglaries in the area, mostly in churches, and we now have an endless string of prayers for him and all those caught up in crime, and for those who work to protect us from crime.

In many ways, this incident has been a gift for us: coinage for prayer given through a burglar.

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