It’s been a little less than a month since that awful, awful day. In the span of mere hours the news broke that two schools were defiled by violence. It shattered my heart and tore at my soul. Maybe it’s because I’m a mother. Maybe it’s because I… I… I don’t rightly know… All I know is that on that day my heart started to cry and in many ways it hasn’t stopped yet.

The innocence that was murderously stolen. The lights went out that day. First they flickered. Then they were snuffed out. Coldly. Swiftly. The question that rings in my head is “Where was God?” The immediate answer from the depth of my soul is that He was there, in the school, giving those children exactly what they would need in that ultimate moment when they would walk into His Glory.

Six teachers died that day. Some of them were mothers. All of them desperately loved children. They were taken first. In the fear of the day, what a comfort was it for those children to find these teachers who loved them dearly by their side? Yes. They are dead. In mere minutes Heaven’s Choir of Angels grew by 26. It was the field trip that no one planned for. One that no one wanted to take that day – or on any other day…

Yet, every time I think of it, all I can see is the teachers standing there, next God, in the greenest of fields, with the clearest blue sky as far as the eye can see, gathering their young charges in their arms. Comforting them. Explaining to them the unexplainable, the unimaginable. Watching them play in God’s playground. They are all walking hand in hand to the heights of Heaven, laughing, to wait for day when they will be able to run to the arms of those they loved so dearly again.

They knew no fear, only Love. They knew no pain, only comfort. They were not abandoned, they were welcomed by familiar faces. Where was the Lord that day? Right where He said He would be – in His Father’s house, putting in the finishing touches in the rooms that would all too soon be filled by so many innocents. Where was God that sad day? He was directing His guardian angels to stand guard over the students hidden in behind closed doors. He was in every step run by first responders.  He was in every moment that slowed the flying bullets. He was in the presence of mind of everyone in that school – from the person who turned on the intercom system to warn teachers of the present danger, to the people who called 911, to person who recommended that the students & teachers should leave the school with their eyes closed… He was in every word of comfort spoken by teachers to the terrified children. He was in every missed heartbeat. He was in every breath we forgot to breath. He was in every shrill cry of the broken hearted, for His heart broke as well that day. He was the silence in the chaos, the stillness that stopped time for too brief of a moment so that unprepared families could say a final Adieu.

We are now nearly a month later. For most of us, time has moved on. The students have returned to a new school, where skilled labourers worked day and night in an attempt to restore some of sense of normalcy. Families are slowly picking up the pieces of their shattered lives. The talking heads are driving our attention to gun laws, prayers in school, and mental illness. Let the talking heads speak their words. Rest, be at Peace, and know that God IS with us.

(All pictures with thanks from www.stockfreeimages.com)