I have had a bit of writer's block these last few weeks. I have tried repeadtedly to write about some of the feelings around the Elizabeth Olten events that I have encountered in different people. And I have just been unable to put it all together. So many emotions and so many things that were unknown. While there isn't anymore known in an official, legal capacity...there are things that different people who are close to both families know and are saying.
We know that one little girl was brutally murdered at the hands of a 15 year old girl. They knew each other and there was one fateful day that events too stunning to think about ended her life. Such innocence lost, not just Elizabeth's or this 15 year old, but our community, and our own children. Some of our children were in class with Elizabeth, and have had to try to understand their own mortality as a result of her death. 9 years old is way too young to grapple with something alot of 40 years olds haven't yet. My own son was in class with the un-named suspect. I know we don't know her name-officially-but her absence in school, her friends, and her extended family members have unofficially confirmed her identity. Zach has wrestled some with knowing that he was in classes with this girl and talked with her, and didn't recognize the pain she was in or the depth of the darkness that resided in her. He wonders if there might have been something he could have said or done that might have lightened the load somewhere along the way. And haven't we all tried on the scenario - "if it were my daughter."
And then came the lock down of the Govenor's Office building, and the not "knowing what was going on" feeling and suspecting the worst but hoping for the best. As it turned out, it was "the best."
Now the reflex we all exercised on Tuesday morning was to pray, and we did just before the staff meeting began-we prayed that when all the world is falling apart, God is there.
I have heard one person say that they believe the world has sunk so low that it can't come back, that what we have left our children is a pile of rubbish too tall to overcome. Now that is a hopeless place to be, and I can't say that I live in that place. What am I saying about my own children if I believe that...that they are not strong enough to overcome the pull of this world. I do believe, that with the community of believers behind them, they absolutely CAN overcome the darkness that is in the world. But it will take the generations of this person that believes the world is lost, my own generation and everyone that follows to believe in the future generation in order for it to happen.
Do we believe the light of Christ can overcome the darkness that exists? And isn't it the same darkness that God sent Jesus into the world to overcome in the first place? When everything gets upside down...we hold on all the tighter to that which we know about God. Steadfastness, abundant love, faithfulness, and God that seeks each of us to know that message. My prayers continue for the Olten family in their grief, but my prayers also continue to for the 15 year old that waits for her hearing this week. I pray that in the time ahead, months and years, that there will be a time that the light of Christ will indeed overcome the darkness within her and the pain that she must know would be healed with some of that amazing grace.
As the details are shared and become known, let us not forget that Christ has come to overcome the darkness...from his birth until now...and we can be part of the light or we can give in to the darkness...let us choose the light. Amen
