Posted by
Cal Samuel August on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 11:44:29 AM
For any talk of two Americas or more (John Edwards style) when times were less grave, in times like these when push comes to shove the people of the United States come together. It becomes a time of reflection, a time to put down the less serious everyday tasks. On 9/11 I'm sure for many days there was that terrible sickening feeling in the stomach among many people. I know I felt that way. Though the Virginia Tech event was not of the magnitude of the events of September 11 we certainly do feel a measure of the sadness that we did on that terrible September day a few years back. In times like these, for a certain time, we drop what we are doing and stand at attention.
When I heard of the terrible massacre on Monday, I truly did a double take. It was not two people, but thirty- two people who were murdered on Monday. These things will surely happen, whether by the course of a natural catastrophe or brought about by people carrying out acts of evil in the world. We could board up every room, lock every door, put up line after line of security, but when someone is determined to carry out a random terrible deed, they may not always be thwarted. Such was the case on Monday.
It is the randomness, the unexpected quickness, the not being able to say goodbye that makes things like these so difficult. It brought to mind when I was at seminary, and my mother called to tell me that my uncle had passed away as a result of a terrible traffic accident. When the funeral was all said and done, it was time to go and tell my almost-ninety year old grandmother, who had been in a nursing home for several years as the result of a debilitating cerebral hemorrhage. I wasn't sure how she would take it, but as the matriarch of our family, a woman not unaccustomed to her own measure of suffering, my mother told her and asked her if she understood. She did not shed tears, but simply nodded her head in knowing. She carried on.
In times like these, we must all face the noble task of carrying on. Many will be tempted to talk gun control and security, to pass the blame to various administrations at various levels, but a better way is simply to keep our eyes open, stand tall and strong in the face of evil, to carry on and live our lives to the fullest, in freedom and full defiance of anyone who would intend us harm. This is a noble thing. In Matthew 10:16 Jesus Christ tells His hearers that He sends them out as sheep in the midst of wolves, He exhorts them to be as crafty as serpents and as innocent as doves. This exhortation is to all who must look evil in the face.
Now for those who mourn and remain for a time in sadness, there is comfort in the Scriptures.
Many passages come to mind, but I will share only a few.
I think of King David who mourned his dying infant son. His servants mentioned the fact that he fasted and wept while the child was alive, but once the child had died, David got up to eat bread. This puzzled them. David responded simply that he did so while the child was living, hoping that God might be gracious and spare the child, but in the time of death there was nothing more for him to do. He said simply, "I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."
(see 2 Samuel Chapter 12).
Truly this is the case for all of us. Those who have passed cannot come to us, but we have the promise that we will go to them. Consider what Job said in his own day (Chapter 19) knowing that His redeemer lived, and that even after worms destroyed his skin, he believed truly that at the last he would stand on the earth, in the flesh, face to face with that redeemer.
And that redeemer is Christ, about whom the Apostle Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 (King James version):
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.For those who believe in Christ, there is hope. We shall one day be again with those who have died in Christ. This is most certainly true.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Virginia Tech. -Cal Samuel August