Two Fingers & A Tragedy
Timothy Tin
Recently on a highway in Los Angeles, a road rage caused the death of a 6-year-old boy.The killer is a 24-year-old young man named Marcus Eriz who loves guns. Marcus was a passenger in his car as his girlfriend Wynne Lee was driving. On the same highway, a mother named Joanna Cloonan was driving her 6-year-old boy Aiden to kindergarten. When Wynne abruptly cut off Joanna’s car, Joanna was furious and raised her middle finger to them. In return, Marcus also lifted a finger but that was his index finger which pulled his gun. Marcus fired the gun while Joanna’s car was merging away from them and that took the life of little Aiden who was sitting at the back of his mother’s car.
The innocent boy was killed between two fingers. The finger that pulled the gun trigger and the offensive finger from his mother. The ultimate cause of this tragedy is road rage. According to the statistics from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety: It is found that, in 2019, almost 80% of drivers admitted to significant anger, aggression, or road rage within the last 30 days while driving. In an analysis of more than 10,000 road rage incidents over seven years, there were at least 218 murders and 12,610 injuries. An average of 30 murders occurs each year due to road rage.（Source: www.bankrate.com/insurance/car/road-rage-statistics)
In the case of this 6-year old victim…
if the young driver did not cut off and upset another driver…
if the mother did not give an offensive gesture and angered the young driver…
if the young gun lover obeyed the law and did not open fire…
the boy would not have died!
The killer was arrested later. But the boy had already died.The mother will need to live with the pain of losing her son, partially due to her own act of venting her anger on someone.
What can we learn from this tragedy? Do you think that we should vent our emotions on strangers? Do you think that we should use offensive gestures or languages to express our anger? Do you think that a mother would think of losing her son because she releases her rage on someone? The Bible says: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” (Ephesians 4:29)
Meanwhile, as we all know, raising our index and middle fingers symbolizes “V for victory”. Since the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill started using the “V” hand gesture to spread the news of victory during World War II, this gesture became popular around the world. It represents sending the good message of “victory”. It is the same as spreading the gospel. Christians send the message of good news that God has given us eternal victory through Jesus Christ. Jesus won the victory at the cross where He was crucified to redeem us. “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” (1 Peter 2:23)
Jesus Christ bears the sins of all mankind and sacrifices for us, so we can be forgiven from our sins. Since God has forgiven us, we forgive those who hurt us and dispel the resentment in our hearts. Believe in Jesus and receive salvation, you will be blessed and you will act in righteousness by following Jesus.
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