living in a broken world

The tears flowed down my face when I heard there was another school shooting.  Like any other parent watching Friday's tragedy unfold, I thought of my own children.  And on the heels of a Portland mall shooting just three days prior, it's hard not to fall into a dark place of hopelessness.

 

The recent devestating news reminds me of a similar tragedy- the school shooting at Thurston High School in May of 1998.  I was a high school art teacher at the time, but at a school across town from Thurston High.  There was a district-wide lockdown, and I spent the five hours in a locked classroom helping students process a gamut of emotions.   



A year later, there was a mass shooting at Columbine High in Colorado.  My husband's friend happened to be in the school's cafeteria that day.  He helped get kids to safety.



Thurston, Littleton, Newtown- these are small communities, yet so many of us have been personally impacted by their tragic stories.  I want to believe that we've seen the last of these senseless killings, but we live in a broken world.  So I turn to God for hope, for He brings light into a dark world.  In fact, He willingly entered a dark world to love it and save it. 

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  John 1:5 

Rembrandt, Adoration of the Shepherds, oil on canvas, 1646. National Gallery London.