Our church lost a sweet young lady recently and her parents were a lesson to us all. They didn't say much. They just hung onto each other and her sisters. They cried for days, and I mean hysterically. Then they came smiling and ready to go on, to her funeral, and in complete celebration of her life they welcomed us, held us, had the funeral director play "Spirit in the Sky" at top volune before the service, and kept everyone's attention on how really marvelous she had been so we could all cry with great big smiles on our faces. They reminded us to hold our dear ones close and love 'em while they're lent to us.

I have been looking at your postings about this terrible thing today, and praying for you all and for the people involved in this situation, and I have been thinking what to say about it. I know that there are probably Red Cross people on hand to help the people who have had this happen in their community. We need them here! I don't think, even though I am Red Cross myself, that what I will say will help much, but this is what I have been holding in my heart for you today, so...

There is never enough to say about a situation like this and I think you should not expect each other to make sense tryoing to talk about it. There are not words that can be wrapped around such insanity! I don't think even a melody from our best songsters can really capture this all. But I do think song is a more accurate way to address this pain than words we would say or write.

Try as we will, there is not enough reason in us to make sense of something like this. But we fragile, flawed humans do have something else very precious, something that we must call upon to encompass these very deep hurts. One source for it is the warm and very real presence of those you have with you in your lives, to love and be loved by. This tragedy calls for each of us to find someone we love, and someone who we know needs our love, and hold them very, very close, and let the hurt place inside you cry and rage and not be alone.

You cannot make this feel any better by giving and taking more hurt here between yourselves. It will not make anything better. It is enough to mark and dignify the passing of this child's irreplaceable life-- to reach out to one another from the sense that we all know this was a terribly wrong thing that was done-- and hold fast to your joy in one another.

There are people all around each of us who are like this little boy and his parents. Your most powerful influence in the world is your ability to love.