By now, I'm sure you've all heard about the horrible events that unfolded in the Colorado movie theater over the weekend. Learning about the senseless killing of innocent people is always heartbreaking, and nationwide people are mourning and praying for those injured and the families of those who lost their lives.
As we learn more about the person who committed this heinous act, we start villainizing him - we as a population start labeling him as crazy, disturbed, a terrorist, a horrible person, the scum of the earth, someone who should be done away with. We see the terrible thing he has done and assume that it is the culmination of his entire personality. But that is not how God sees him.
Lately I have found myself praying for a murderer. About a year ago there was an awful event in the small town where I went to college, where a young man kidnapped a woman, her young children, and her friend, then killed the two women and the little boy and hid their bodies in the woods. It was a heart-wrenching time of searching for the missing, then learning what happened to them and bringing the man who did it into custody. Seeing the community support the family was tremendous, but I sill think about that teenage girl who suffered through this and lost her family in the process.
And while I pray for her, I also find myself praying for the man who did this to them. It seems awful, in the wake of a tragedy, to pray for the criminal as well as the victims, but it dawned on me one day that while what he did was absolutely terrible, it wasn't what he was meant for. God created him for a specific reason, and continues to love him despite his past actions. As much as it breaks God's heart to know that these innocent people were harmed, it also breaks his heart to know that one of His children became so broken as to commit such harm.
Our pastor spoke this weekend about Moses and Aaron. God marked Aaron as a priest, and then while Moses was on the mountain communing with God, Aaron went and made a golden calf for his people to worship. And even though we would have written Aaron off as not being fit to be a priest ever again, God knew that despite this terrible sin, Aaron was meant to be a priest, and would go on to finish his life as a priest. The pastor reiterated that God isn't so much concerned with your beginning or your past; it's the future and the end that counts.
It is terrible to know that so many people lost their lives over something so trivial. But as you are praying for the victims, I encourage you to pray for the shooter, as well - he is just as important to God as they are, and probably needs His grace and guidance more.
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