The Touch we Need

            When I think of what happened today, in my mind’s eye I see parents, broken and weeping, and through the blur that their tears have created over their eyes, they look on a world that now seems unreal, or at least seems to have lost its former significance.

            Because all they can see is their son or their daughter. All they can imagine is how it felt to hold them close with a heart enlarged with an undying love.

            A love that would have done anything to protect their child.

            What a helpless feeling to know that you can’t, that someone violently harmed your beloved son or daughter, and you can’t change that. I would venture to say that the people affected by the tragedy in the Connecticut elementary school today do not want to hear why it will all be okay. Sometimes emotion trumps logic or can tend to cloud even our deepest held convictions about life. I’m not saying that’s good, but it’s a reality that so many face when hit with suffering.

            So where is our hope? Surely it is not in the goodness of the world. Could it lie in second chances? These parents don’t get a second chance with their child. I think only God knows. I could come up with a lot of fancy words to try to explain why there is hope in Jesus, and of course I believe this to be true, but I know only God can communicate to the suffering in the exact way they need it.

            God often brings to my mind a picture of his healing when I am in a place of confusion or hurt or loneliness, and that is the image of his hand on my heart. I can almost tangibly feel it, and it seems to instantly break me down and comfort me. It’s like a deep massage of all my hurts by someone who knows and cares about them all and about who I am as a person. God knows the touch we all need.

            I just pray that each of these family members and friends of the victims will feel God’s touch, whether it is his healing hand on their hearts or a gentle whisper that speaks of an understanding that cannot be contested. Many of us have had those experiences, the times when we just can’t argue with what we have encountered, and though it goes beyond all our logic or emotions, we know it is true.

            And, perhaps, God has a second chance for these people that they cannot see quite yet. Though their children may not be, they are still breathing, and they are loved by their Creator in such an unfathomable way, just as their sons and daughters were also loved. We live in a broken world, but one that God wants to heal. That is his good heart towards us.

            Besides, he relates with our pain on a very personal level. He gave up his son to death to gain our love. If we truly got this, wouldn’t we trust him? I pray that these people can and will.

            There is yet hope.

            I came across this song by Switchfoot today that seemed to me to correspond with this tragedy in some way. I feel like the first part speaks of a father or a mother who is expressing how much their child’s heart means to them, how important it was to them when they were born. I see it also as Father God speaking to us, to the parents of the victims, even, how much he cares for their lives, telling them that he is always theirs. When it gets to the “Hallelujah” part, I feel like this is the response of someone who has received this Father’s care for them, and who is taking hold of their “second chance” by giving themselves completely to him.

            He understands.

“This is the star, this is your heart
This is the day you were born
This is the sun, these are your lungs
This is the day you were born

And I am always, always, always yours
And I am always, always, always yours

These are the scars deep in your heart
This is the place you were born
And this is the hole where most of your soul comes ripping out
From the places you've been torn

And it is always, always, always yours
And I am always, I'm always, I'm always yours

Hallelujah, I'm caving in
Hallelujah, I'm in love again
Hallelujah, I'm a wretched man
Hallelujah, every breath is a second chance, yeah

And it is always, always, always yours
And I am always, I'm always, always yours
Always, always, I'm always yours, I'm yours
Always, always, I am always yours”

By Switchfoot