The Amish community in Pennsylvania suffered a horrific fate; the violent and senseless deaths of five of their daughters. Charles Carl Roberts blockaded himself and the children in the Amish schoolhouse and he had every intension of molesting and murdering the girls. He pulled it off. He killed five of them, and seriously wounded several others.
After the shooting in Bailey, Colorado, where Duane Morrison held six girls hostage, molested them, then murdered sixteen-year-old Emily Keyes, copycats were bound to ooze out from under their rocks.
If God is good, why does he allow such cruelty? I wrestle with this question all the time, and I find no answers.
Voltaire decided the question was not worth worrying about. Just work in your garden.
But I cannot abandon the idea of God nor can I shed my belief in Christ. It won’t go away, I can’t make it go away. My faith is there. I know it, I feel it, and no amount of logic can change it. Faith is not something that can be proved or disproved, it just is.
The families of the victims of Roberts' crime showed their faith through their forgiveness. They went to Roberts' funeral and were there to support his wife and children.
How can they do that? I don’t know. I couldn’t. My thirst for vengeance, my anger and bitterness, would eat me alive.
But hatred and violence only bring more hatred and violence.
Bad things happen, terrible tragedies, and there are no reasons. The Amish accept it as God’s will, but I don’t believe that either. I have no answers.
Emily Keyes parents have called for random acts of kindness in their daughter’s memory.
This I do know, the remarkable strength shown by the Amish and the Keyes family will make the world a better place, and will bring them more peace than violence ever could.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” Now I know what He was talking about.
I send my heartfelt prayers out to all the victims.
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3 comments:
I, too, am amazed by the victims' families and their ability to offer forgiveness and peace. I don't know how they do it, but I do think it's the best route, especially for their own emotional well-being.
Yes, even if you don't believe in Jesus' divinity, His teachings have much to offer.
What He asks of us is difficult, and most of the time I don't measure up, but I know the world we be better if we could try to emulate his ideals.
The world would also be better if John Hagee and Pat Robertson had their mouths stapled shut!
Finished Last, if these creeps (see how forgiving I am) hadn't shot themselves they would and should have been punished to the fullest extent of the law.
They were guilty, but what we keep forgetting about forgiveness is that it is the guilty we have to forgive. It's going to take me a while to learn how to do that, but I will keep trying.
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