(Or What I Was Trying to Tell Sally But She Was Too Busy Describing How She Could Hide inside Her Classroom Filing Cabinet)
Dear Huckle and Sally,
In the wake of the horrifying tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, there is so much I
want you to know, so much I hope I’m already getting across to you.
First, I love you so incredibly much. I can’t imagine life
without you. I can’t imagine having you ripped from my arms and then life going
on: another weekend, another Monday,
another anything.
Second,
I want to remind you that God never promised us easy lives. Evil is a real and constant
presence. The same day as the Sandy Hook school shooting, a man in China
stabbed 22 children outside their school. Syria and the Democratic Republic of
Congo are humanitarian nightmares. Every
day is tragic day for someone, somewhere. Some tragedies just hit closer to
home than others.
Why
does an all-powerful, loving God allow this constant barrage of evil? I don’t know.
But I’ll bet he hates it more than we do, more than I hate it when you trip and
need stitches on your chin. Or when I tell you “don’t push your sister” and you
do anyway and then she gets hurt. Is this about free will? Is it about God
allowing us to choose to believe in
him rather than forcing us to believe because only those who do are rewarded
with trouble-free lives? Is it because life, though it’s all we know, is a tiny
flash in the bucket for our eternal souls and that the ultimate goal is far, far
more wonderful than a trouble-free life, or not achievable with a trouble-free life? If I knew the answer, I’d be as smart
as God. But I’m not. In fact, the main thing I learned in graduate school was
that there’s far more that we don’t understand than that we do understand. If
we don’t understand the creation, we certainly won’t understand the creator. I’m
sorry -- that’s not a satisfying answer.
God
doesn’t promise us trouble-free lives, but he does promise to be right beside us in our troubles. He is our
Emmanuel, our God-with-us. I wasn’t there in the Sandy Hook elementary school, so I don’t know what
that meant to the victims and witnesses. I only know what it has meant to me in
my darkest moments. Huckle and Sally, God loves you and is right there with
you.
That’s
why, despite the constant presence of evil, I want to raise you to live
fearlessly. Don’t just be aware of evil; don’t ever accept it. Hate it! Fight it! Love what is right and do what is
right and fight for what is right. Be a source of comfort and strength to those
around you. Be a hero. Be God’s arms and legs in a broken, hurting world.
Finally,
Sally and Huckle, value every moment of your life, but know something better
awaits you. Our post-modern culture insists that there’s nothing after life on
earth, that we end like snuffed flames –in endless darkness and nothingness. My
Loves, this is conjecture. You and I understand that the absence of empirical
evidence does not automatically mean the absence of anything; nothing can be
proven without data. We must try to answer this question without the help of
science. Can you accept that there is a source of wisdom higher and nobler -- yet
more accessible to 6-year-olds -- than reason? Many can’t and consider faith to
be foolishness. I don’t. In faith, I rely on the testimony of the living God in
the Bible -- a God who loves us and who promises life with him in heaven. Cling
to this, my sweet children. Live like survivors, knowing that the war is won
even if the battles still rage. Think eternally. Good ultimately wins.
Love,
Your
mom
No comments:
Post a Comment