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I heard and followed up reading about a news story a day ago that I can’t shake. A young couple—a mother and father—took their two children on a family hike in Devil’s Den State Park, a name that already carries an unsettling weight. What happened next was senseless and horrifying: a 28-year-old teacher, newly employed in Arkansas and formerly from Oklahoma, killed the parents in what authorities have described as a “completely random attack.”

Miraculously, the two children on the hike were not physically harmed. One child, the youngest, wasn’t on the hike at all. These children now face a life forever altered, their world shattered, and their parents gone—all because of an act of violence no one can understand.

There’s no known motive. No reason that can be offered to satisfy the ache in our souls. Just another tragic headline in a world where headlines like these have become too common.

I think about those children and the unimaginable grief they now carry. I think about the brave parents who, in their final moments, protected their children with their lives. I think about the community that has to pick up the pieces—friends, family, students of the teacher, and total strangers who, like me, are just trying to comprehend how something so evil can happen in a place intended for peace and beauty.

And I think about you. I think about the people in our churches, our neighborhoods, our communities, who hear stories like this and wonder, “Where is God?”

Let me be honest: I don’t have a tidy answer. There are no easy explanations for senseless violence. There are no simple sermons that resolve this kind of pain. But I do know this: our God does not turn away from heartbreak. God is not distant from this tragedy. God is in the cries of the children, in the tears of the friends, in the outrage of the community. God is in the sorrow, and God is in the silent prayers we whisper when words fail.

And maybe—just maybe—that’s where we begin. We begin with grief. We begin with lament. We cry out for the children who have lost their parents, and for a world where violence has become far too normal. We pray, not for answers, but for healing. For peace. For a way forward.

We remember that Jesus wept at the grave of his friend. We remember that the Psalms are full of raw and honest cries of anguish. We remember that our faith does not require us to make sense of evil—but it does call us to stand against it. To love harder. To protect more fiercely. To be the hands and feet of Christ in a world that so desperately needs to be reminded of grace and mercy and goodness.

As I write this, I am holding those children in my heart. I am praying for them, and I invite you to do the same. May God surround them with love and protection. May God bring comfort to all who mourn. And may we never grow numb to the pain of others—but instead allow it to deepen our compassion and strengthen our resolve to be light in the darkness.  See you Sunday!

Peace, Pastor Tracy