What Can I Do?

   As I walked this morning, I looked at the Christmas tree lights as they shone through the windows of a darkened house. I imagined the family inside, still asleep, comfortable in their beds, thinking and dreaming good thoughts, anticipating this day, looking forward to Christmas Day, 10 days in the future. Presents under the tree are calling out, "Look at me, wonder what I contain, think how much fun we will have 10 days from now when you get to open me".

   I think of the delight the parents in this house will have as they watch their kid's eyes, wide open in amazement at the bounty put before them. I can see the parents, even now, 10 days before the big day, as they look into the kid's rooms and see the smiles on their sleeping faces, and they smile too, knowing what is in store for those little ones that they love. Life is good. God's in His heaven, all's right with the world. Or so it seems.

   But my mind will not let me stay in this perfect world. Just a few minutes before, as I picked up the morning paper to put it inside as I prepared to walk, one word jumped out at me. "Horror". I know the story on the front page is about the school shooting up in the northeast, and I begin to think of the parents of those kids up there, even as the new day dawns in the east, and I see the colors of a God-painted sky begin to appear.

   I am sure that they too may look into a kid's room, hoping against all hope, that they will find them there, asleep with smiles on their faces also. What a shock and horror to find that they are not where they should be this morning, that everyone in that home will not spend this day, looking forward to a Christmas that will not come, at least not in the way they imagined yesterday.

   How will everyone feel as they look under a Christmas tree, perhaps unlit this day, seeing packages with names of little ones that will not be there to open them. I know in my heart that their eyes will fill with tears, as mine do right now, as I try to put myself into a place that I cannot even imagine, no matter how hard I try.

   I want to know what I can do in this situation . Can I help in some way, to alleviate the pain and suffering in those homes up there? I know I can pray for them, that God in His mercy and grace, will comfort them in their time of sorrow and loss, but, forgive me God, that seems lame right now. I know, deep down, that it is not that at all. It is right to pray, and prayer does work miracles, but somehow I want to do more.

   I cannot go to Connecticut and put flowers at the school site, but my heart says, "do something", so, as I walk, I think, and I think of something I wrote into my prayer this morning, even before these events came to my mind, and I see at least part of my responsibility in this matter.

   My prayer was, as it often is, to see the day ahead as a brand new opportunity, one that has not come my way before. I will have the chance to treat my family in a way that says "even if one of us does not have a tomorrow here, I'll do my best for you today". Not a fatalistic thought, just a challenging one. Not a macabre thought, but an uplifting one, and not only for my family, but for those others out there whose lives may intersect with mine today, in any way.

   And I can pray for those who are hurting, those that are far away and those right around me. God knows and God cares, even when I cannot see His hand in the affairs of men. I can see what the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 55:

"My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
Fear and trembling come upon me,
and horror overwhelms me."

   And I can live my life, even in this one day, like He has pointed out to me this morning, so as to honor Him in the way I treat all those "others" in my life.