Bombing the Boston Marathon

Two days ago, someone or several someones exploded two bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. As of this writing, they haven’t caught the guys. There is a lot of misinformation floating around, but at the very least we know that someone decided to do something terrible and as a result three people died and more than 175 people were injured.

One of the worst things that’s happened t information is the 24 hour news cycle. The pressure to put constant information out into the world means that they information is often unreliable, it’s salacious, it’s intense, emotional, decidedly NOT objective and frankly, much of what we see is in my opinion really unnecessary and traumatizing.

I try to shield my kids from the news. They are small and they don’t need to know the nitty gritty details of all the horror in the world. I told them about Sandy Hook (the school shooting) in December, but that’s the first time I’ve ever told them about a news event. I knew that would be all over school and I wanted them to hear it from me, so I decided to get ahead of that info stream. I didn’t think this would be a topic of conversation among the 8-11 year old crowd, so I had no plans to tell them.

I’ve been travelling for work the last two nights, so at night I’ve been texting with Grace before she goes to sleep.  I was pretty surprised when she brought up the bombing in Boston.

G: “I wore blue today.”

L: “Oh yeah. Blue what?”

G: “Blue shirt.”

L: “oh is that a big deal?”

G: “Ya yesterday Boston had a marathon and some guy bomed the finished line and three people died yesterday because of that so me Hannah and Jacie wore blue to support Boston.”

And I was in that moment slapped with a big reminder that mission critical parenting moments happen when you are tired, sitting in a cold, Chicago hotel room, texting with a tender hearted 11 year old…luckily she was shooed off by her dad to brush her teeth giving me time to think.

When she returned, she and her clean teeth were primed to learn. She talked about making care packages for the people who got hurt. She asked me if I wore blue. She asked me if I heard about Boston and how I heard about it and why someone would do that.

Then she said:

“Mom, but Hannah said w shouldn’t remind them about the marathon”

“Who?” I asked.

“The people who got hurt. A lot of people got hurt by the bom.”

We then had a very interesting conversation about how when bad things happen it can be hard to know what to say to people, but you should show people you care.  When people do things to acknowledge something bad has happened to you it makes you feel loved. If everyone acts weird or ignores it or pretends like it didn’t happen it can make you feel bad, so you should try to be as kind as you can to a person and help them know you love them.

Then we talked about how the number one thing you can do for a person is pray for them. That will help them more than anything, I told her.

That was it. She said she would pray. I told her I loved her and that she was a kind person and to do the kind things she felt in her heart. Then she sent me a bunch of crazy emoticon faces and went to bed.

This morning I was sitting in my meeting and my phone buzzed.

G: “Mom did U pray for the people in Boston yet?”

L: “Yes and I’ll keep praying for them.”

G: “good me too.”

L: “have a good day. Love you!”

This week some other lunatic sent ricin to a senator and the president, which means we will probably all have to start checking our mail again. Tonight some fertilizer plant in Texas exploded. Who knows what will have happened in the world by the time the alarm clock goes off tomorrow morning.  And while I want to look at my babies and tell them it’s all fine and nothing will ever happen, that’s not the world we live in. We live in a world where you have to be as kind as you can. Where you put your arms around those who suffer. Where you pray for peace. And where you live your life, your good, obedient faithful life. You don’t cower, you don’t quake, you don’t live in fear. You do all the Lord has asked you to do and you look forward with faith in Him.

There will be other Bostons and 9/11s and tsunamis and Hurricane Sandys and other sorrows and tragedies we haven’t even conceived of yet. But we live our lives – the fullest, best, faithful lives we can live.. 

And we wear blue and make care packages and cry and hold our babies tight and pray for peace. But we never turn our backs on the source of true peace. We trust the Lord. We replace any fear in our hearts with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.