3/17/2016

Who Gets the Bullet?

Two of our church friends, a young couple, were shot at close range.

Hit by one bullet each, the wife died on the spot; the husband had some breath left.

Instantly, kith and kin went on their knees to pray for God to save his life. He never woke up.

They left behind three children—the youngest of whom is only five years old. What breaks our heart to pieces is, in less than 24 hours, the life of these kids made a sharp turn. That morning these innocent ones had both parents. In the evening they had caskets.

For whatever reason, nothing is grave enough to give anybody the right to snuff out lives.

Life does not come cheap. It is a precious grace from the One who created it. Every fiber of our being had been carefully knitted together from nothing into something wonderful by God.  

Can we ever explain such dastardly barbaric crime?

Those who brazenly pulled the trigger can fabricate all the excuses for such an act, but they will not get past the great Judge on Judgement Day, which might come sooner than we think.

“Many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace.” Daniel 12:2
 
We live in a cruel world where flowers and weeds co-exist. Both get the same grace of rain and sunshine to grow.

But then the weeds crowd out the flowers, till the beauty is gone and the pesky, unwanted weeds reign supreme. 

I use the weeds-and-flowers metaphor now because bullets remind me of weeds. Unless we pluck them out, they will continue to hide or kill the beauty of flowers. But who does the plucking? Certainly not earthlings like us who live in a fallen world. 

We can only make a choice—to preserve the warmth and beauty of life or join those who pull the trigger of coldblooded guns.

The assurance of those who live for Christ is . . . if ever one bullet at close range killed our body, it could not kill our soul. 

We continue to pray for the three children’s comfort and beg God to make them grow up in His light and that the people who surround them become their surrogate parents in every way possible.  

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4 comments:

Vie Velasco said...

Made me think of the brevity of life. In trying times it's difficult to recite Romans 8:28 BUT I always remind myself that this is God's Word, He will never lie, He is in control and He has His purposes which may seem unfathomable at the moment. Our hope? Trust God.

Yay Padua-Olmedo said...

Why people would abuse and maim and torture others is for me so hard to understand. Yet, the bible explains it quite simply. Sin has gotten into the hearts of men and it's only Jesus who could cut us free from its sting. O Lord, you alone can change hearts. Praying for the killer and for those kids—that His grace may be poured out richly into their lives—in spite of the enemy's intention to destroy them . May Jesus be preached and received by men and point them to righteousness and obedience.

Grace D. Chong said...

Hello, Vie!

I recently met some of my nieces and nephews who were babies when I last saw them. Some now have children of their own and some have gray hair. Life indeed is short and flies by so fast! But it's great to know that when it's time to go, we're headed toward that wonderful neverland!

Grace D. Chong said...

Dear Yay,

In one of our pastor's messages, he said that we are all half-blind, and don't see why things are the way they are. That's why we need faith--we are grateful to the Lord that those who believe in the saving grace of Jesus have this faith.