The Stranger in the Lifeboat

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and his dark beard was now quite thick.
“Did you know about Jean Philippe?” I whispered.
“I know all things.”
“How could you let him take his life? Why didn’t you talk him out of it?”
He looked me straight in the eyes. “Why didn’t you?”
I began shaking with rage. “Me? I couldn’t! I didn’t know! It was
something he decided to do on his own!”
“That’s right,” the Lord said, softly. “He decided to do it on his own.”
I glared at him then, this haughty, deluded stranger who enjoyed acting as
if he manipulated the world. At that moment, I felt nothing but contempt.
“If you were really God,” I seethed, “you would have stopped him.”
He looked to the sea and shook his head.
“God starts things,” he said. “Man stops them.”