Thursday, October 19, 2000

After the Shooting

Hello everybody. In response to everyone's questions about how we're doing, we want to tell you we are alright. Yes, we were very shaken the other night. I know I was in shock. But we have now had a few days to recover and some normalcy has returned to our world.

It is sobering each and every time you come close to death. For me it was more sobering this time because I now have a family.

What if it was our back door those men found instead of our neighbour's? How might have the events that ensued affected Melissa or Michael?

I don't know. I really don't know. I do know that we are alive and relatively unscathed. For that much I am grateful.

What next? Cheryl mentioned moving somewhere safer. Yes we are going to do that. I don't know when, but it will happen.

Jesus' parents took him to Egypt until Herod died and that particular threat to Jesus' life was over. So there's precedent for changing physical situations.

As a long term issue though, we cannot avoid the fact that our children are living in a world where many people place the value of a human life lower than their own interests. Sadly, my children are going to learn that there are many, many ways to kill a person. And if they are perceptive, they will understand that there are fates worse than physically dying.

Last year a boy in Alberta took a gun to school, shot, and killed 2 of his fellow students in a random act of violence. The father of one of the students who was killed is the pastor of a church in that area. I think I can begin to imagine how he felt to lose his son now that I have one of my own. To me that would be a fate worse than my own death.

I take hope, though, from what this pastor and his family did after the death of their son. Because their story became a national issue, their suffering became an opportunity to stand up in front of all Canadians, in the name of God and all believers, and offer forgivness to the boy who had caused so much harm.

I cannot remember the pastor's name now. I'm sure you can find it somewhere on the Net. What I do remember is his attitude. His attitude was this:

We cannot give in to hate or bitterness. We must not walk in fear. We will not let the forces of darkness win.


Anybody feel like this lately?

No comments: