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Dan Wheldon Didn't Come Home

  • Jim Daly Jim Daly is president and chief executive officer of Focus on the Family, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping families thrive.
  • Updated Oct 18, 2011

Posted by Jim_Daly Oct 17, 2011

It is a difficult sight to see, flames bursting from a crushed Indy racing car, tires flying through the air, vehicle upon vehicle slamming one into another.

To watch a crash in which a man dies is a horrific thing. It's just not supposed to happen this way. Racing is safe, we're told, even safer than driving our car through our neighborhood on the way to the mall. But yesterday in Las Vegas something went wrong, and terribly so.

The scene is being replayed on television and millions will continue to see it and wince, as well we all should. But this morning I'm thinking of another scene, a private one so painful that it is beyond mere descriptive words.

It happened yesterday, as well, when Dan's wife, Susie Behm, was told her husband wouldn't be coming home, wouldn't be returning for that fun reunion between husband and wife -- and father and sons. Susie and Dan have two little boys. Sebastian is two. Oliver is 7 months.  Both boys will be left to remember their dad only in pictures -- and a video of a fiery tragic crash on a Sunday at a racetrack in Las Vegas.

Having lost both of my parents as a young boy, I may have an extra measure of compassion for kids who grow up having prematurely lost their folks. But yesterday's accident is yet another reminder of just how sudden the tide of life can turn.

Dan Wheldon didn't come home last night. Unfortunately, for millions of kids in the United States, their dad didn't come home last night either. Through divorce, separation and a host of other difficulties, too many children are living apart from their father or mother.

Hug your kids extra tight today -- and perhaps, pray how you might help those who are missing their own mom or dad.  And please join me in praying for the Wheldon family, won't you?

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