I had planned to write about something else tonight, but felt that it would be appropriate to delay that post in light of the below.
About every month or so I drive a couple of hours to Lancaster County where I regularly frequent a couple of Amish stores and farms. As a result of these excursions, I have had the opportunity to have regular casual dealings with the Amish, and find them to be wonderful people. I have enormous respect for them as people who are committed to their faith, and they have likewise been very respectful of me and my family.
Just two days ago, there was a terrible shooting at an Amish schoolhouse in the area. Though I had seen an online headline regarding the shooting before my shopping trip today, I wasn’t aware of the specific location. I felt almost ill when I got home and then read the more detailed news, and realized that it had within a couple of miles of where I was today. After becoming familiar with the area and the people living there over the course of the last year, this was especially horrifying to me – I felt it could have been any one of them. It was terrible when I first read about it, but when I realized tonight that I literally drove right down the street of the home of the sisters who were killed lived, I felt just sick inside.
While shopping, I didn’t want to be intrusive and ask any of the Amish women who were working or shopping alongside me what the general reaction was (and at that point I had no idea how extremely close to home it was). But a lovely Christian woman happened to approach me and we began chatting. She brought up the news during our discussion – she has lived in the area for a number of years, and she told me the entire community (ie, Amish and non-Amish) was devastated by what happened. She also told me that she knew the man who killed the girls – they had attended the same church when they were younger, and apparently he lived in the same community. I asked her how people were dealing with it, and she said that the overwhelming media influence is very unwelcome. But she said that people have faith in God, that He will give them strength to get through this. They believe that there is some higher reason for everything that happened, though they don’t know what it is or why it happened. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t pain and anger – there is.
As I discussed with my children as we were driving down the back roads of Lancaster county, a person never knows what day will be their last. That’s why it is so important to try to live every day as if it were your last – very lofty, I know. Bringing it down to earth, one thing that it means to me is: when I say goodbye to my children or husband, to try to leave with a good feeling – a hug, a kiss, an “I love you”. I am not always successful, but I try. Closing our interactions with a message of love is something that a person will never regret.
My heart just breaks for the parents and families of the young girls killed, particularly the Millers, who lost both their 7 and 8 year old daughters. I just can’t imagine the pain, and I hope that none of us will ever have to go through anything like what these parents are dealing with. At the same time, if I am ever faced with a challenging situation of magnitude, I hope that I can find the faith, courage, and strength that the Amish community has shown.
My prayers go out to the families of those injured and killed, and to the entire Amish community.
Avivah
