Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Virginia Tech

I'm no one with a certificate in psychology or counseling, to hang on the wall (though I did get my undergraduate degree in psycholgy-excuse me. Hey, it was the 70's!- I don't think that makes your input particularly valuable or needed, anyway), and I'm not directly affected by the Va Tech event. But, it doesn't seem right to be entirely undeterred about the mass-shooting at Virginia Tech, yesterday.

Warning: duck if you don't want to hear the first Huckabee plug: Today at http://mikehuckabeepresident2008.blogspot.com/ , a reference and link are given to "Kids Who Kill: Confronting Our Culture of Violence," which Huckabee wrote after the school shooting in Jonesboro AR, when he was Arkansas' governor.

To me, the Va. Tech incident just grips you with sympathy for the families, as you realize how much you love your own. I have explained to my kids how no tension in the house quenches the love that a parent feels for a child, citing David, whose sin, Absolem rallied and plotted against his father. Yet, when Absolem was killed, David was wrenched and cried out, "Oh Absolem. Absolem! My son, my son!"


Jesus' parable of the prodigal son is the picture of God's love for His errant human children: After leaving his father's home, the son squanders all that his father gave him and wound up in squalor. After reasoning that he would be better off as a servant in his father's house, and straggling back home, his father sees him approaching and runs out to meet and embrace him. "Kill the fatted calf! My son has come home!"

In this life, there is no extinguishing parents’ love for their children. We are made that way for a reason: Whatever has happened or wherever you are, there’s no end to God’s love for you.

Larry

1 comment:

Larry Perrault said...

Obviously, a spell-check and my preview didn't catch the typo of "son" as "sin." Incidentally, Solomon was the product of David's noted sin with Bathsheba, which was followed by arranging the killing of her husband... One step tempts a pattern, of course. Solomon followed David as king, and wrote parts of Proverbs and many think Ecclesiastes.Talk about making lemonade from a lemon.

Larry