Yesterday you may have heard the news of the fallen officers that were ambushed in Baton Rouge. Yesterday it was personal because it happened in a neighborhood I've frequented~ where I've bought photography props, where I've stopped for lunch, where I've bought our groceries, where I've taken the boys for their medical appts, where Rob drives to get to his office. Yesterday it was personal because I was connected to the fallen officers. No, I was not friends with them nor have I actually ever met them. But I taught one of the officer's sons last January. He is a good kid and was very proud of his dad being a police officer. Whenever he contributed to the class discussion, it pertained to his dad being an officer and the life lessons he had learned from his dad because of his line of work. The boy would get to class a few minutes early to talk to me on a personal level, often telling me about something his dad had encountered at work. This past Spring the boy started attending our church with his grandparents (the officer's inlaws) whenever his parents were working on the weekends. We talk on occasion or he's quick to say hi to me before the service. But I didn't put 2 and 2 together to figure out that they were related, that this fallen officer was related to the same boy I taught (due to confidentiality I don't have student's last names so I couldn't make the connection), until I saw a GoFundMe post on FB. Then it hit me how close to home this has all become. I realized that he was the same officer that sat in his police truck next to me in the carpool lanes every day while we waited for our kids. There was a face with the name. I then discovered that I had taken pictures of one of the other officer's daughters when I took the daycare pictures, that this little girl may be E's classmate soon. This tragedy became a sad reality.
Yesterday I spent a lot of time in prayer but felt more frustration than comfort. This morning I woke with my thoughts immediately going to the fallen officers' families. I reached for my devotion books, frustrated that E had moved my bookmarks, only to find that the devotions were exactly what I needed today. Beth Moore writes, "Sometimes good at its best is when the law of the heart eclipses the law of the land. Stepping across the boundary to help is sometimes our first introduction to the commonality of humanity on the other side. Offering help in a time of need can be the first step to overcoming God-dishonoring prejudice." The verses in Sarah Young's devotional today spoke to me as well. "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33 and 2 Samuel 22:29 "You are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord turns my darkness into light."
My devotion time got me thinking back to 9/11. I felt so much fear and had such a troubled heart. But somehow the good people of the USA bonded together and brought peace to this great land. Now, almost 15 years later, I have no doubt that we will rebuild again because 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
Right now we, as a nation, need healing. All ethnicities and races need healing. All citizens and first responders need healing. Until that happens, I will pray. Pray for the officers' families, pray for the officers that have to patrol and keep up safe every day, pray for our nation and our leaders, pray that God will be brought back into people's lives. Because prayer is the only thing that is going to truly heal our nation.
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