Last Friday, a gunman opened fire at a civic center in Binghamton, New York, killing 13 people before taking his own life. It’s a terrible and senseless tragedy, and it prompts all-too-familiar questions about God, evil, and grief.

Over at Back to the Bible, Woodrow Kroll has written a reflection on Friday’s massacre. While mourning the terrible loss of life, Kroll points out tiny flickerings of God’s grace in the tragedy’s aftermath:

I am deeply saddened by the loss of 13 people, 13 men and women just trying either to become a U.S. citizen or to help others become a U.S. citizen. Now we are left with trying to piece together the questions, the motives, the senselessness of it all. Thirteen families are asking why? Why my family member? Why here? Why now? Why? And once again there are no easy answers. Rarely does God answer our “why” questions anyway.

But in the midst of this extreme sadness and tragedy, there are tiny droplets of God’s grace that we must not miss. We must appreciate that, in the midst of chaos, there is grace.

God’s grace was evident in the fact that there were 41 people in the American Civic Association building that day and a crazed maniac armed to the teeth with enough ammunition to kill all of them many times over managed only to take 13 people with him to eternity. A tragedy for those 13; a miracle for 28 others.

God’s grace was evident in the fact that, even though one of the first shots fired as the gunman walked through the front door hit the receptionist, she had presence of mind enough to play dead and ultimately make the 911 call that brought emergency help quickly.

Read the full article for the rest.

By: Andy. This entry was posted on Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 3:52 pm and is filed under News & World Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.