Sunday thoughts and pictures

By now we all know about the shooting in Connecticut on Friday. Even if you don't watch the news much (like me) you can hardly turn on your computer or smart phone without seeing something about it.

And everyone is blogging about it (like me). That's natural, I suppose. When something touches your heart, you want to share it. And this tragedy has touched so many hearts. I am seeing all kinds of posts and discussions popping up all over on gun control, the treatment of mental illness, prayer in schools, you name it. And all these issues deserve discussion. My hope is that we can all try to maintain rational discussions on these topics, realizing that not everyone will agree with our point of view. But for now, I just want to think about the victims.

I found a list of the victims names here. I started to just copy and paste the list (the easy way), but I am going to type each name. A memorial of sorts, maybe. My small way of honoring these precious lives. I hope you will do them the honor of reading their names and lifting their families in prayer.

• Charlotte Bacon, age 6
• Daniel Barden, age 7
• Olivia Engel, age 6
• Josephine Gay, age 7
• Ana M. Marquez-Greene, age 6
• Dylan Hockley, age 6
• Madeleine F. Hsu, age 6
• Catherine V. Hubbard, age 6
• Chase Kowalski, age 7
• Jesse Lewis, age 6
• James Mattiolo, age 6
• Grace McDonnell, age 7 
• Emilie Parker, age 6
• Jack Pinto, age 6
• Noah Pozner, age 6
• Caroline Previdi, age 6
• Jessica Rekos, age 6
• Avielle Richman, age 6
• Benjamin Wheeler, age 6
• Allison N.Wyatt, age 6
• Rachel Davino, age 29
• Dawn Hochsprung, age 47
• Anne Marie Murphy, age 52
• Lauren Russeau, age 29
• Mary Sherlach, age 56
• Victoria Soto, age 27
• Nancy Lanza, age 52

You may notice that I included the name Nancy Lanza (the shooters mother).  Despite what anyone may feel, she is a victim too. Time and the media will eventually tell us all there is to know about this woman and her son. But to be honest, I'm not sure I want to know, at least not yet. Right now my heart hurts for all these families, including the Lanza's. Perhaps it's because I have family with severe mental illness. I can all too easily envision the horror of knowing someone in your family did such an unspeakable thing. 

Please pray for these families. Do you know what I think would be amazing? If we could flood the world with the names of the victims and forget the name of the shooter. That would be a beautiful and fitting memorial.

I will just leave you with this image, it is one I love, and it seems to fit as well. God bless you, thank you for stopping by.