Monday, April 15, 2013

I Must Confess That I Am Not Up To A Clever Title Today...


April 15, 2013 3:10 CST.

I have been watching news coverage over the last few minutes as the horror unfolds in Boston this afternoon.  Just after 3pm Eastern Time, two explosions tore through the Boston Marathon.  The number of dead at this time is officially counted at three, and it is my prayer that that number doesn’t change.  It wasn’t until they showed the video of the explosion and I comprehended that the unbelieving gasp I had just heard was mine that I realized that I had been holding my breath for a while. 

I am writing these words as tears roll down my cheeks.  I’m not entirely sure why I am so moved by something that happened so far away, to people that I may never know.  All I know is that it does.  Maybe it’s because in a very real way I do know them.  I may not know their names, but the lives they experience are not so unlike mine that I can’t share in their shock and grief as those lives are disrupted in massive and confusing ways.  Maybe it’s because of a faith that leads me to the understanding that in my humanity, I am to be in relationship with others in this world in significant ways and that means sharing in both times of celebration and of mourning.  Maybe it’s because I am grieving the loss of a false sense of security in the reminder that nothing in this world is permanent; nor is our safety guaranteed just because we are “good” Christian children.  Or it may just be some of all of it.