soOn To be SAdLy sOlved

after a day of fun (w/ magna and Joey..), fellowship (small group), food (cookout style), fox (american idol), fulfilled needs (God), and frying my brain (studying), i was feeling at peace with the day i've had and all it entailed. one last check of the email and i was off to silent slumber. but the headline caught my eye, and although sensing that it may contain some type of info that would potentially nag at my thoughts as i layed in bed, i had to read the article that followed. news is bad. it seems to only get worse. i am admittedly ignorant as to what goes on in the world, a little more knowledgable on the city in which i live, but still rather avoidant of the local headlines. someday, i hope i might change. right now, i have no intentions to. sometimes, it seems like the burdens of my own life can be too much to take in. and then, when watching the news, i see stories like this one, i can't let them go. i add these burdens to my load, and just become sad because of the weight and weariness they cause. an example, you might ask? Emily Rimmell. I don't know, maybe a year and a half or so ago they showed her picture on the news as a missing child. there was something about her little face that i couldn't get out of my head. she was 5. she looked sad. a week later they made an arrest. i can still see this guy in my head as well. he makes my stomach turn. he was a friend of the family. he slept at her moms house alot. he admitted to raping her before she disappeared. it looks as if he may have killed her as well. today they found a little skull that they believe to be hers. its hard to find good things in the news. sometimes its hard to believe that God works all things for good. but i do believe this. i have to, because if the hope in God doesn't exist, does hope exist? i don't know the good that will be brought about from the rape and killing of a little, innocent 5 year old. perhaps in her death, she tasted hope. maybe God was rescuing her from what looked like repetitive,unescapable glimpses of hell. maybe the only way to peace for Emily was through a brutal, violent death. and yet, thats the only way to peace for any of us. the brutal, violent death of Christ bought us the chance to receive this peace so undeserved. God's son. He watched His own Son suffer and die. to offer hope and peace. to us. and hopefully to the little ones like Emily. the peace that He offered me at the cross, I took Him up on it. It's unexplainable really. it takes the tragic, and though it doesn't take the tragedy away, it soothes as it reminds me that God loves and knows all of His little ones. He loved Emily, and all the other ones that have no voice. He loved them to death. That brings me peace. He's in control and knows what He's doing. Sin is Sad, but He will conquer, and perhaps in Emily Rimmell's case, He has already conquered the sin she fell victim of and is now holding her tightly and safely in His arms. I hope, and i can hope because I know HE is good. that a death may bring peace. to her, to us all.