Around 1:00 in the afternoon on Thursday, a sixteen-year-old shot through the locks on the doors to the Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon. He then proceeded to kill three students and one teacher before a local bystander who’d noticed him enter the building shot him. As of this writing, another student and teacher are alive but wounded from the attack.
Police responded quickly to the flood of 911 calls, arriving at the school only a few minutes after the shooter entered. However, by that point, he was already dead. The surviving students were then taken to a nearby church, where they were reunited with their families.
Officials have yet to release more information on the shooter, his potential motives, or the weapon used, though law enforcement sources suspect it was a shotgun.
Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler spoke for many when she told reporters,
A school should be a safe place where children can learn and feel secure. What happened today should never happen. Like so many in our community, I’m struggling to make sense of a loss that feels unimaginable.
Perhaps you’re feeling the same way. I know dropping my kids off at school will feel different today than it did yesterday, even though what happened in Oregon is unlikely to have any direct impact on our lives here in Texas. Still, I imagine the parents who are grieving the loss of their children, as well as those who will have to try and explain what happened to the ones who survived, thought much the same yesterday morning.
So, what do we do with those feelings?
The churchy answer—which also happens to be the correct one, in this case—is to take them to the Lord. But the truth is, tragedies like this can make it hard to seek comfort from a God who could have stopped them and didn’t. What do we do then?
Reasons to be grateful
In a previous article, I argued that suffering is not only redeemable but necessary in light of God’s goodness. I still believe that’s the case, but tragedies like yesterday’s shooting are among the most difficult to view through that lens, even if they are also when it’s most necessary to do so. As I’ve thought and prayed about how to do that, though, I felt like the Lord brought two thoughts to mind that I hadn’t considered before.
At the end of the day, God’s omniscience means that he knew this attack would happen, and his omnipotence means that he was more than capable of stopping it. As a result, it’s completely valid to ask why he didn’t. But the new thought—at least, new to me—was that if God bears any sense of responsibility for the lives that were lost, then he bears at least some responsibility for the lives that were saved as well.
The shooter managed to kill four people in under three minutes, and it could have been so much worse. While we don’t know much about the bystander who stopped him, what are the odds that someone who was not only armed but brave and capable enough to intervene would happen to be near the school as that sixteen-year-old broke in? How many more might have died if he hadn’t risked his own life to stop him?
Moreover, how many more would-be shooters are stopped by friends, family, or other people in their lives who notice them heading down that path and choose to intervene before they ever make it on campus? Thursday’s attack was the first mass shooting in a school since a fourteen-year-old killed four in Winder, Georgia, more than two years ago. It seems unlikely he was the first to consider it, though, and it is right to thank God that more haven’t done the same.
Again, that does not mean it’s wrong to have questions and doubts in the aftermath of a tragedy like this, but if we’re inclined to blame God for the four who died, then we should also thank him for the nearly five hundred who survived.
That said, it can still be difficult not to give the tragedy more weight than the blessing, though. And that basic impulse is important as well.
A lingering reminder of God’s image
The second direction God took me as I reflected on the tragedy of this shooting is how strangely natural it seems for the negative to hold our attention rather than the positive. I think at least part of the reason why that’s the case is that enough of who God created us to be still exists in all of us to recognize that this world is broken.
If God weren’t real and this world was simply the result of random chance, then there would be no reason for us to be this shattered by something like a school shooting. That kind of tragedy would simply be an expected part of living in this fallen, depraved world.
But that’s not the case. Rather, being appalled at something like this is seen as a basic test of our humanity. And there’s no logical reason why that should be the case outside of the fact that a shred of that imago Dei with which we were all created still cries out against such violence and loss of life.
That someone was willing to shoot up an elementary school shows that it is possible for sin to break us so completely that the image of God in our lives is all but buried. But that’s the exception rather than the rule, and it’s important to recognize that fact.
Again, none of this is meant to keep us from asking the hard questions about why God would let something like this happen. Those are entirely fair and appropriate, and the Lord is not offended by our asking them. But that grief is also a reminder that we were created for so much more than this world can offer, and the desire for what only God can provide is still woven deep inside each of us.
Perhaps at least part of the way God will redeem the Silver Rail shooting is by using it to awaken those desires on the other side of the grief and fear endemic to this moment. So, with that possibility in mind, let’s conclude for today by taking some time to pray.
How to pray
If this list is something you need to come back to throughout the day, that’s fine. Just don’t rush through it. After all, those who are hurting deserve more than empty thoughts and a quick prayer. Let’s make sure our prayers reflect that fact.
- Start by praying for the families who lost loved ones in this horrible tragedy. And don’t just offer a generic “Lord, please be with them” kind of prayer. Take the time to genuinely seek God’s help with knowing how to pray for those who are hurting, then follow through in obedience to what he shows you.
- Next, thank God for all the lives that were saved. Again, take the time to seek the Holy Spirit’s help in knowing how to offer that prayer, particularly if gratitude in this moment still feels more forced than natural.
- And if you’re still beset by the doubts, fear, and anger that a tragedy like this can bring to the surface, take those thoughts to God and ask for his help in working through them well. Don’t stuff them down or move on until you’ve genuinely wrestled with them in the presence of the Lord.
- Finally, ask God to make you aware of any opportunities to help people know him that will come about in the days ahead as a result of the shooting. The Holy Spirit knows the hearts and minds of the people around you better than you ever could, and he knows who is ready for that kind of conversation. If God brings someone to mind or helps them to cross your path, ask the Lord to help you be ready to have that conversation well.
Quote of the day:
“The true wonder of human beings is not that we are sinners, but that even in our sin we are haunted by goodness, that even in the mud we can never wholly forget the stars.” —William Barclay
Our latest website resources:
Denison Forum
