It’s quiet now in the Uvalde elementary school building. The bodies have been removed and the wounds are being treated. Family members are either relieved their children are safe or struggling through an unbelievable nightmare. The Police have returned to their regular duties as they wait for the consequences. Nothing will ever be the same, but at least the killing has stopped. Now it’s time to heal and recover. If only that were true!
As the first grim accounts began appearing, politicians started blaming their opponents and declaring their solution! The Police were criticized for not charging in and saving more children. Commentators, celebrities, and “experts” leveled blame and displayed their anger. Some who called for defunding the Police now questioned why the Police didn’t do more. Did anyone who spoke out really have the answer? No, they didn’t even acknowledge the problem!
Someone propped a door open and enabled the killer to gain easy access to the building. It seems like the local Police made bad decisions in the heat of the moment and that may have led to more deaths. Hopefully an investigation will determine what really went wrong, who failed, and how they can do better next time. These are reasonable steps if they can avoid the political storm that threatens to derail their process. Sadly, none of those efforts address the real problem so they may never reach a solution.
The 18-year-old killer lashed out in hatred and anger. Stories of him being bullied and mocked in school for his clothes and for stuttering shows they know why he was angry. His mother expressed disbelief at his behavior, but the father admitted he hadn’t spent much time with his son due to his own relationship with the mother. His mother and father were each “living with” other people. How could that broken and dysfunctional family deal with their son’s problems? The troubled young man stayed with his grandmother who he must have hated because she was the first person he shot. Politicians will point to racism that led to poverty and destroyed the family, but many deal with racism, poverty, and even broken homes without producing a killer. Our leaders don’t have the answers and may be part of the problem.
The real problem is they didn’t love their neighbor! Oh boy here comes another sermon! No, this is an acknowledgement of the facts as we know them, and the solution depends on how much we love our neighbor. What if the school children “loved their neighbor” and overlooked the boy’s clothes and speech problem? He wouldn’t have been filled with the anger, hatred, and bitterness that made him want to kill. What if his parents had loved one another or their children enough to provide a stable home? Maybe they would have “trained up their child in the way he should go…and he wouldn’t have departed” (Prov 22:6)? The outcome may have changed if the grandmother’s neighbor had loved her enough to lead her to the LORD, then she could have passed that to her child and grandchild and “they would call her blessed” (Prov 31:28). Maybe that’s why JESUS said, “love GOD with your all” and “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mat 22:37-39) are the most important commandments? Maybe we should obey those commands and see the difference it makes? That’s the answer!
Wayne Lance (2022) – That’s Good News to Share!