Tragedy at Virginia Tech

Last evening, I joined with others from our mother church, Faith EPC, in prayer for students, faculty, administrators, police, EMTs, families and all those who were involved in the massacre at Virginia Tech yesterday. We prayed for the family of the gunman, too. Four students from the Faith congregation are students there; they were unhurt, at least physically. Though there are some people trying to politicize the situation, prayer seemed like the most appropriate response as we sought to lift up those who will live with the pain of the event for the rest of their days.

I can’t imagine what that campus must have been like yesterday. I do know that even in the midst of death and the threat of death, there were heroes as well (the story of Liviu Librescu, the Romanian-Israeli Holocaust survivor and civil engineering professor who saved the students in his class by blocking the door to his classroom and then was shot himself, on Holocaust Remembrance Day no less, brought tears to my eyes when I heard about it). And I also know that even as evil stalked the Blacksburg school, God was on the campus, and is st this moment, and will be in the days ahead. I pray that all who have been touched by this tragedy will look to the Lord for solace, for understanding, and for strength.