Feels like I'm leaving Eden...
I don't actually write. I babble, here I go...
My 5 year old nephew, Trystan, started kindergarten this year. His mom, a heartless miscreant, finds a way each holiday to either limit or totally eliminate our time spent with Trystan. She leads my brother on each year (so that he'll keep Trystan when she wants to party, or go to jail, you know, whatever) but come Christmas Eve, she totally changes her mind, and it's another Christmas where a few presents remain wrapped under the tree, with no idea when they'll be opened.
She's callous, it's ridiculous that it happens - but I can handle not seeing my nephew on Christmas because his mom's a relentless jerk. I couldn't handle not seeing him because a deranged psycho shot up his classroom.
Everything about this situation is brutal, sickening, and killing me. A man in Connecticut murdered 26 people, including 18 children and his mother today. I was completely baffled as I heard about this today at work, totally stunned. I held it together, until my drive home, and when John called and I told him what happened, I totally broke down.
Any you know, yes, it's completely horrific and not any better when it happens at a college or high school - but these kids are BABIES. Seriously, these kids have to miss out on their kindergarten graduation? They are innocent. They haven't had a chance to mess up. Their biggest crimes are sneaking cookies and fighting with their siblings.
I'm not a parent, I seriously cannot wrap my head around it. I think of my nieces, nephews and cousins, my boss' kids, the first graders I worked with a few years ago, and I can't even fathom it. And when I thought of Sophie and Isaac, John's younger siblings, how could I forget that his older siblings survived the Virginia Tech shootings? My brothers-in-law are survivors of a school shooting, I know what it did to them, and so my heart aches for all of the survivors, whose lives will never be the same. For the class next door, who heard the screams and the gunshots. For the 6 year who pulled his friends out of the classroom, who will always wonder why he didn't get more of his friends out of the classroom.
I haven't been to church much this year, no excuses. I know, without a doubt, I'm not equipped to answer the question "why did God let this happen?"
John says it's to remind us that this kind of thing is happening every single day around the rest of the world, that Kony is still taking child soldiers, villages are being attacked, 22 Chinese children are stabbed outside of their school...
Mike Huckabee claims it's because God has been taken out of the schools. No comment, except your politics don't matter right now, Mike.
The truth is, I don't know. I know that God has given us free will, and just as he allows us to make the decision to love Him, we also get to make the decision to take others lives. Yes, He allows these things to happen, but He doesn't cause them, and is most certainly grieving with us. I'll be spending some time with Jesus tonight.
Forgive them Father, they know not what they do
And like I said, I don't write. I babble. And so I'll let you draw your own conclusions.
My 5 year old nephew, Trystan, started kindergarten this year. His mom, a heartless miscreant, finds a way each holiday to either limit or totally eliminate our time spent with Trystan. She leads my brother on each year (so that he'll keep Trystan when she wants to party, or go to jail, you know, whatever) but come Christmas Eve, she totally changes her mind, and it's another Christmas where a few presents remain wrapped under the tree, with no idea when they'll be opened.
She's callous, it's ridiculous that it happens - but I can handle not seeing my nephew on Christmas because his mom's a relentless jerk. I couldn't handle not seeing him because a deranged psycho shot up his classroom.
Everything about this situation is brutal, sickening, and killing me. A man in Connecticut murdered 26 people, including 18 children and his mother today. I was completely baffled as I heard about this today at work, totally stunned. I held it together, until my drive home, and when John called and I told him what happened, I totally broke down.
Any you know, yes, it's completely horrific and not any better when it happens at a college or high school - but these kids are BABIES. Seriously, these kids have to miss out on their kindergarten graduation? They are innocent. They haven't had a chance to mess up. Their biggest crimes are sneaking cookies and fighting with their siblings.
I'm not a parent, I seriously cannot wrap my head around it. I think of my nieces, nephews and cousins, my boss' kids, the first graders I worked with a few years ago, and I can't even fathom it. And when I thought of Sophie and Isaac, John's younger siblings, how could I forget that his older siblings survived the Virginia Tech shootings? My brothers-in-law are survivors of a school shooting, I know what it did to them, and so my heart aches for all of the survivors, whose lives will never be the same. For the class next door, who heard the screams and the gunshots. For the 6 year who pulled his friends out of the classroom, who will always wonder why he didn't get more of his friends out of the classroom.
I haven't been to church much this year, no excuses. I know, without a doubt, I'm not equipped to answer the question "why did God let this happen?"
John says it's to remind us that this kind of thing is happening every single day around the rest of the world, that Kony is still taking child soldiers, villages are being attacked, 22 Chinese children are stabbed outside of their school...
Mike Huckabee claims it's because God has been taken out of the schools. No comment, except your politics don't matter right now, Mike.
The truth is, I don't know. I know that God has given us free will, and just as he allows us to make the decision to love Him, we also get to make the decision to take others lives. Yes, He allows these things to happen, but He doesn't cause them, and is most certainly grieving with us. I'll be spending some time with Jesus tonight.
Forgive them Father, they know not what they do
And like I said, I don't write. I babble. And so I'll let you draw your own conclusions.