April 28, 1999

DOWN HOME:
No matter how it looks,
God still loves people
___Dear Lindsay & Molly, Your mother and I have agonized with you--along with the rest of the nation-- in these days since the murders in Littleton. I wish I could say words to erase this nightmare, but that's impossible.
___Still, every loving daddy wishes his children didn't have to face this awful reality. We wish parents in Littleton, Pearl, West Paducah, Jonesboro and Springfield did not have to mark their children's birthdays in cemeteries instead of pizza parlors.
___Words cannot describe how I've felt: Fright,

MARV KNOX Editor

when I learned another school had been savaged. Guilt, because I was relieved cameras were not focused on your schools. Frustration, as I realized I cannot protect you from a world where troubled children take other children's lives.
___We'll talk about Columbine High for months to come. That's painful, but it will be good. Talking and praying always help cure the ills of our souls.
___I hope we ask, "How could God allow something like this to happen?" I don't know the answer; nobody knows. But this is what I think:
___Evil is the price we pay for freedom. God could have created a "perfect" world in which everybody loved God by remote control. But we wouldn't have had any choice, and that wouldn't have been real love. So, God took a risk and gave us free will and allowed us to choose. We can choose to love God or not. We can choose to do right or not. We can choose.
___"The students at Columbine High paid an awful price for those boys' freedom," you might say. Right. Victims of evil always pay that price.
___"That isn't fair," you protest. Right, again. But we're not talking about fair. We're talking about a relationship with God, which must be free to be authentic. We're talking about love.
___Fortunately, we do not suffer alone. God knows the pain we feel. God even knows the pain the parents in Littleton feel. Because God paid the price for our freedom with the life of his Son, Jesus. We--every person who ever lived--chose to slaughter the only truly innocent who ever lived. Our sin killed Jesus as surely as those boys in Littleton killed their classmates.
___The difference was that God took Jesus' execution and used it to defeat death. Jesus refused to stay dead, and now all who believe in him will not die spiritually, no matter what happens to our earthly bodies. That includes the boys and girls in Littleton who knew Jesus as their Savior.
___That's why it's important to tell everybody about Jesus' love. We never know how soon they'll need it.
___One other thing: I love you with all my heart, and I'll do everything possible to protect you. But don't trust me; trust God. He loves you the most.
___Love,
___Daddy

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