My Heart is Aching

When something bad happens we tend to come together as a nation.  Our hearts ache, we cry, and we feel a sense of community.  We hurt as one and we heal as one.  It's sad that it takes a tragedy to make us feel that way, but it does.

Tonight, my heart aches.  I have been crying periodically as I watched the news updates on the movie theater massacre in Aurora Colorado.  I grieve for the people who lost someone in the shooting.  I hurt for all the people who lived through the massacre and had to watch people sitting in the theater with them be shot or die.  I can't imagine the panic, terror, and fear that coursed through them as they tried to do everything they could to escape that nightmare.  

Sometimes, as less-than-perfect human beings we wonder and ask God why.  Why does he allow these things to happen?  Why do innocent people have to die like that?  But we will never get an answer.  We will never truly understand why God does things the way he does.  God calls people home when their time on Earth is over and who are we to question that?  We need to remember that those who go home to live with God are no longer in pain and they are happy.  But we cannot erase the people's pain that are left here on Earth and we cannot pretend to understand it unless we've been there.  All we can do is ask God to heal those who are hurting.  We can ask what we can do to help.  And we can just be there.  

Incidents like this always make people realize how lucky they are and how life on Earth can be taken away from us in a second.  We never know when we will take our last breath or where we will be when it happens.  That is all up to God and there is nothing we can do to change it.  We just have to remember not to take anything for granted.  We can't be afraid to live our lives and love with everything we have.  And we must always thank God for all the blessings and the life He has given us. 

So, tonight, I will be sure to hug my loved ones a little bit harder and longer.  I will remember to be thankful for every moment I have on this Earth and to be grateful to God for everything He has ever given me.  

Life is precious.  We should never forget that.  

God Bless all those affected by the movie theater massacre.  

And God Bless America.