Following the ceremony in Tucson last night, I am left with the sense that something that should have been said was left unsaid. The President did a good job in recounting the lives of those lost in that Southwest city on Saturday, and was right in calling for us to make the nation better. And the powerful words of Isaiah and Paul stand on their own. But, nevertheless, something is missing. The following is offered to fill that gap.
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Simply put, what lesson can we draw from the deaths of these people, people who, by their whole lives and by their actions on Saturday, showed themselves to be good in the truest sense, serving others and even shielding others with their bodies and being killed as a result?
Whenever people die in such a seemingly senseless manner we all ask ourselves why such things happen? Why would any God allow such things to happen to such good people? How could a God of mercy and love let such terrible things happen to an innocent child?
The answer is simple but profound, simple but difficult, simple but painful. For God’s ways are not our ways, God’s time line is not our time line, God’s plans are not our plans. And from that we must draw hard lessons, the ones that have been pointed out before whenever good people die: one lesson is that we never know the time or place, and therefore we must live our lives recognizing that today may well be our last; that there is no time to put off those things that we must do; that if we are to change the world, today must be the day. We must wake every morning and, recognizing that today may be our last, act to make that last day an important one.
But let us not forget that even out of the most horrid of evils God can and does bring good; that from wars and oppression have sprung deeper understanding of our relationship with God and with one another, and that in the wake of great evils people have been freed from their chains – both physical and spiritual, knowledge has grown, nations have risen. Yet in all these things we must remember that we are God’s instruments. These things don’t just happen. Rather, the actions of men and women, and yes, children, have brought God’s plans to fruition.
We must make certain our family knows we love them, our friends know we care, and our nation knows we are committed. The immediate lesson that these tragic and untimely deaths teaches is that we must not wait for a better time to do what we must, we must not wait for ‘one more day’ before we act, we must not wait for some better opportunity to do the things we know we need to do to make our lives better, to help our families, to improve our nation, and to bring ourselves closer to our God. We do not know the future; we do not what happens next or what will happen to us tomorrow. We only know that we must act now or potentially lose our opportunity.
Those who died are now in God’s hands and nothing we can offer can change this reality. But, let us all say a prayer of thanksgiving to God that we knew such good people, and another for those who were wounded, both those wounded by bullets and those families and friends who suffer from loss and the fear of loss. And then let us get up off our knees and decide that today we really are going to make a difference, that we are going to be the people and the nation that we were meant to be.
God Bless America.
