I'm driving to the bank during my lunch break today, when I'm stopped before getting to the freeway. There's a cop car blocking off the on ramp, and he's waving cars by.
Now, I wouldn't say this is necessarily an everyday thing, but with constant construction and idiot drivers, accidents happen pretty commonly on the freeway. But hey, It looks pretty serious and I'm a curious person.
So I follow some side streets until I reach a bridge over the freeway a few blocks down. I figure this is where the action will be, and it looks like I guessed correctly. Cars are parked all along the overpass, and there's even some cop cars in the mix. Everyone's looking over one side of the bridge toward the direction of the blocked on ramp I just came from. At this point, a couple police helicopters fly overhead. Ooh.. This is gonna be good.
So I look down at the freeway wanting to see what sort of horrors everyone's looking at. Is a car flipped? How many are involved? Have ambulances arrived yet? Is it bloody? Should I rush to help and try to make use of my limited first responder skills? My heart's beating with the possibilities.
But what's this? The freeway's empty. Is the action below me? If so what are all the people looking at?
Sirens begin to blare in the distance, and then I see them. About ten cop cars all with lights on heading slowly down the road. Shouldn't they be in a hurry? Oh... it's just a transport. Is this seriously all just for some famous person passing through? Really? They blocked off the whole freeway just to create a convoy for some political leader or something. Great. What a letdown.
And then I notice the man beside me in a police uniform.
He's got his hat off and held against his chest. He's looking forward. Silent, his eyes intently gaze at the lights. Still touching his heart, he steps closer to the fence and raises his other hand out against the chain links and toward the cars. He lets it rest there for a second as if he feels something needs to be said. He then lets out a sigh, and steps back to his original position to continue to watch, resigned to the fact that words won't be enough anyway.
As if his reluctant sigh was their signal, cars begin to flood down the freeway. Hundreds go by, each with their lights on. From highway patrol to rangers to undercover vehicles, they somberly drive in a single file line. There's a continuous flicker of sound as dozens of sirens get activated and deactivated over and over again. This goes on for minutes, and the cop cars seem never ending.
It was Loud. Defiant. Powerful. Shattering.
Someone tells me at this point that it's because an officer has died. I learn later that this is the funeral procession for Carl Howell, a nine year veteran of the Carson Sheriff's office, who's been shot and killed after responding to a domestic violence call.
All the sudden, I see it with new eyes. This is no emergency. This is honor shown to someone who deserves all the honor we can dish out. I'm in tears. So many people, all here to honor a good man who defended those who couldn't defend themselves. This is a heavy moment. But it has a sense of triumph. A sense of victory.
But why is that? Why is it that I confused this moment with something like royalty being in town? Aren't these two opposite things? How can they feel so similar?
I think it's because we know deep down that a true leader is someone who is willing to die for the people he serves. A true leader sacrifices everything he has for the sake of his people. But I think it might even be deeper than that. Something is ingrained in us where we understand in our core that a man who dies for someone else is worthy of royalty. Something about such a sacrificial and selfless act convinces us we have come across someone of greatness truly worth giving everything we have for.
The problem is, once someone has proven this they're gone. Because we've lost them, we can't follow them.
But there is one man who has conquered death.
This man not only died for someone, he died for you. If someone who gives up his life for another is worthy of being treated as royalty, how much more worthy of this is someone who died specifically for you? Doesn't that man deserve to be called King? And this man lives! Though he died for your sake at a great cost to himself, he conquered death and calls you into his kingdom. Look and see the victory in this! The one worthy of the ultimate kingship lives! Let the sirens blare.
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