Because I have kids who bracket the ages of those murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary, it’s been a time of questions and lots of putting myself in those families’ shoes. 

One of the curses of being a writer is the empathy that floods me in events like this. I feel the pain and horror. I’ll be sitting in church watching our children’s Christmas program and grieving for the families that lost a child and the empty spots in the angel choirs. I think of the unopened presents that are under a tree. What’s a family to do with those when they are still too stunned? I think of the momma cuddling her precious child’s teddy bear, curled on the now empty bed. I think of the medical examiners who had to do the autopsies on those small bodies.

But as I prayed aloud with my kids Friday afternoon, I could feel the shift in my spirit as I prayed for God to do what He does. The miracle that we can’t imagine in these moments. That act of stealing victory from Satan and turning a horrible, beyond-words evil act into something He uses for good. I’ll admit I am clueless as to how He does it…but  I know to the very core of my soul that He does. So I pray for Him to be real to the families and the communities, to all those who were first responders and confronted with the tangible after effects of evil. And I pray to do what God does best: Transform an evil act into something good and beautiful.

Even as my heart shatters for those families.