Get out your favorite version of the Holy Scriptures and turn to 2 Chronicles 7:14







Sunday, December 16, 2012

Safe in the Arms of God

The events of recent weeks have been enough to send a sensitive person off the deep end. It's only by the grace of God I'm able to position my fingers over the keyboard and let thoughts pour forth.

I have in mind a couple of subjects I'd like to broach. But not today. Not while the memory of Friday is still so fresh in my mind. Today, I think I'd like to pay tribute to the fallen students and teachers, by recognizing them by name. As I recorded these, I read each name and let it register in my mind, that this is a real person, mourned by a real family . . . not just some gruesome headline.

The childred,all six or seven years old, were:
Charlotte Bacon, Daniel Barden, Olivia Engel, Josephine Gay, Anna Marquez-Greene, Dylan Hockly, Madeleine Hsu, Catherine Hubbard, Chase Kowalski, Jesse Lewis, James Mattioli, Grace McDonald, Emilie Parker, Jack Pinto, Noah Pozner, Caroline Previdi, Jessica Rekos, Avielle Richman, Benjamin Wheeler, and Allison Wyatt.

The adults were:
Rachel Davino - 29, Dawn Hochsprung - 47, Anne Marie Murphy - 52, Lauren Rousseau - 30, Mary Sherlock - 56, and Victoria Soto - 27.

I won't belabor it any longer. Lord knows the press has kept it ever on our minds. Perhaps that's good. Perhaps we need to have it drummed into us that Satan does not love any of us. Not even the innocent children.

My grandchildren (five and seven) asked me about it. They didn't seem too traumatized by it, so I simply told them the slain children and teachers were happy in the arms of God. But we needed to pray for their families. Because they were going to miss their loved ones very much.

Faith will pull us all through. For some it will take longer than others.

Do something kind for someone . . . today. And every day.





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