Sigh no more

Serve God, love me and mend
This is not the end
Lived unbruised, we are friends
And I’m sorry
I’m sorry

Work comes hard this morning, the tragedy of Friday still fresh in everything you hear or see. Over the weekend, I was able to avoid it. Christmas party, birthday party, staying off Facebook and Twitter for the most part. Refusing to watch the news or any tv that could be talking about the unimaginable horror that man can inflict.

We didn’t talk to Emma or Gerrit about any of what happened, shielding them instead from thinking about an event they’re incapable of comprehending. How could we even expect them to? My adult mind finds it impossible to understand and process. What chance do their 9 & 8-year-old minds stand at grasping it all? As their parents, we choose instead to protect the fragile innocence they hold.

This morning, as we drove to school, they shared their excitement for the near arrival of Christmas. They talked of Santa and pondered together on his schedule. How he managed to stop at all the houses and gifts for all the children. That they were fortunate they somehow managed to sleep long enough to forego stumbling upon him as he left their presents. Maybe he would take them all back if they did discover him.

As I listened to their sweet, little, chipmunk voices and excitement, I couldn’t stop from thinking about the parents of the victims. Of the gifts already bought, some already wrapped with the names of their children on them but no child to receive them anymore.  All of the little, innocent lives who will never have the opportunity to discover there is no Santa.

My heart, it breaks. For the loss the parents feel, the grief I can’t begin to comprehend. For the lives so wrongly taken.  I find myself sitting here this morning, weeping and asking like so many others… how?

How could something like this happen? How could someone do this to innocent children? How do we prevent it from ever happening again?

How do the parents of the victims ever recover from that day?  How does their community?  How do we all go on after such an abomination has occurred?  How do we overcome evil?

I sit here with a heavy heart, wondering all of these things and listening to Mumford Son’s Sigh No More…

Love; it will not betray you
Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be

There is a design, an alignment to cry
Of my heart to see,
The beauty of love as it was made to be

Imagine a world where we all lived more like the man (woman) we were meant to be?  If we loved with a perfect heart, how different could life be?  If we let go of our strife, released our grievances.  What if the world were so full of love that evil had no place to reside?

It sounds like a simplistic statement but I feel it’s true… love truly has to be the solution.  The answer for today and tomorrow.  For the world.  Love your children.  Teach them to love and to accept it in return.  Love your spouse so your kids see what love looks like.  Love your friends and family, even when they are imperfect and hurt you to save your heart from becoming hard.  Love your neighbor because they might not have anyone else who does.  Love the stranger you haven’t ever met and realize that life is so very short and fleeting.

It shouldn’t take a horrific tragedy to remind all of us that deep down, we’re all people.  We all have hopes and dreams.  We’ve all loved and lost.  We all want the best for our loved ones and to protect them.  I want to say my thoughts and prayers are with the family friends of the victims of this senseless tragedy but I don’t know how to qualify that right.  Evil has shaken us all to our core.  I think we all need prayers and thoughts right now.  Hug your people tight and love the hell out of them.