Senselessness

She got home just before dawn after completing her night shift on the cleaning staff at the university. She stepped into her 14 year old daughter's room to check on her. What she found was her daughter's body stabbed 17 times in her own bed. Forensics indicated that she had been raped twice prior to being stabbed.

Their pictures on the five o'clock news verified that the name of the deceased was indeed the girl I was remembering. She and her mom hadn't been in church for a while so I had to double check which block she lived on before going to the house.

Quite a crowd had gathered out along the curb. Flowers and stuffed animals had already begun to be piled high on the sidewalk in front of the downstairs window. I worked my way through those milling and those loitering in search of a familiar face.

The mom was visiting with everyone until she saw me. At that point, she grabbed hold of me and wept. My legs held both of us upright.

Several minutes later a Cadillac pulled up to the curb. Our city counsel representative emerged to express her condolences. At that point, the mom released her grip and again began visiting with the growing crowd.

The day's heat and humidity hung heavy in the air. The crowd was restless and its agitation was growing. It felt like things were on the verge of going out of control. I didn't know what to do so I went home and kept my other appointments previously scheduled for that evening.

I think this is the point in da 'votion where I'm supposed to connect the story to some more universal principal. I'm supposed to point out the Spirit's action or the role of the Church or something like that.

I'm not that smart. Making sense of what happened is well beyond my understanding of God and the capacity of the English language.

I do, however, need to go back in my mind to that night once in a while. I don't go back to it to try to figure it out any more. The world doesn't fit neatly into the boxes we construct in our mind. Like the writer of Ecclesiastes, I sometimes need to just acknowledge the senselessness of the human condition and choose faith in the midst of it.

God, I don't understand things most of the time. In the midst of senselessness, help me to choose You.