Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
On a recent airing of the talk show “Katie”, host Katie Couric interviewed Marie Monville, the former wife of Charles Carl Roberts IV, who shot ten girls between the ages of 6 and 13 in an Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania,* on October 2, 2006. Five of these girls died before Roberts turned a gun on himself. Monville, who has remarried, wrote a book about the events surrounding this horrific day, and she spoke with Katie Couric about the tragedy and how people in her community reacted.
Marie and Charles Roberts lost their first child shortly after her birth, and Marie believes that “Charlie” never overcame this loss. On the day of the massacre, Charles Roberts left his wife a note (which she found later) and told her that he was sorry for what he was doing to her and their children. She saw no signs that Charlie might do something so heinous. She says that she had no warnings or clues prior to this terrible day.
This is a story that belies rational thinking. It’s hard to think about how a father could walk into a classroom and line little girls up against a chalkboard, bind them, and then systematically shoot them. It is unfathomable to imagine the grief that these girls’ families have endured…or the grief and shame of Charles Roberts’ own wife and children. And yet, something remarkable happened. The very day that this tragedy occurred, parents of some of the victims went to the home of Marie Roberts Monville’s parents - where she had taken refuge – and reached out to her.
They visited with Marie’s father…hugged him…cried with him. And they told him, “We forgive you…we support you…and we are here for you.” Within hours of the massacre, Marie Monville says that she stood in her parents’ kitchen looking out the window …and watched as her dad went out to meet with the Amish men who approached the house. She watched as they extended their arms and placed their hands on his shoulders. She said, “Their gestures told me everything that my heart wanted to hear…but never dreamt that we would – especially not so quickly afterward.
Monville said that the Amish men told her father that they forgave Charlie…that they were extending grace to all of the family… and they asked about Marie and the children. Monville noted that, “It was just shocking that they would be thinking of us in this time of tragedy in their lives.” Additionally, Monville recounted how these Amish families – including parents and family members of some of the victims - attended Charles Roberts’ funeral and formed a human shield between her family and the news media. Marie Monville and her family were able to enter the church without being photographed or questioned. It is against the religious beliefs of the Amish to be photographed, so these families created a “wall” of solidarity - with their backs to the barrage of media representatives - and guarded Marie Monville and her family. Marie said for these families to attend the funeral and put themselves in a place of protecting her and her family was more than she could comprehend.
Why did these families do such a compassionate and merciful thing? They told Marie Monville that when they went home at night, they had each other for solace. They knew that Marie had no one. Monville said, “It was startling to me that they were able to see into a very private place of real pain in my life in the midst of all of the pain that they were going through in their lives. I had never experienced love like that before. To experience the love that they truly have…and the compassion they are so quick to share…and the richness of the grace they offered…really changed my world.”
Can you imagine yourself being able to offer this sort of love, grace, mercy, forgiveness and compassion to someone who directly – or by association – wounded you so deeply? What is our capacity for loving others…for offering them “the richness of grace” in Christ Jesus? Because you see, these people did not do this out of their own strength and resolve. They clearly operated out of the depths of their love for Jesus…out of His demonstrations of love for them and the forgiveness He offered each of us, even as He hung on a cross. This group of people exhibited Jesus Christ in action, as they set aside their own pain and suffering - or channeled these emotions into something positive and uplifting for someone else. And in doing so, they honored God…they gave witness to His tremendous capacity to love and forgive us…and they sent this message into the world at large.
Katie Couric told Marie Monville that she was truly moved by this story and the gestures of love and compassion that were exhibited in the face of such horrific tragedy. And it is a moving story. But the “take-away” for us should be that what these people did in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, is a powerful example of what we should do in our own little corner of the world – each and every day. I pray that you have not experienced a human tragedy of any kind…and certainly nothing that remotely compares to this horrific event! But each of us has “gone through stuff”…we have our own baggage – our own hurts, insults, challenges – and our own people to forgive and offer grace, mercy and compassion. If the folks of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, could do it…so can we.
Search your heart. See where you need to truly love others more deeply…to offer the richness of God’s grace and mercy…to show genuine compassion and sympathy to others’ plight. Learn to set aside your own feelings in order to meet the needs of God’s people…to help them to experience His healing and peace. Ask God to equip you with His strength, wisdom, generosity of spirit…and peace. I assure you, God will meet your own needs in the process.
In ways great and small, we are called on a daily basis to be God’s “human shield” of love, grace, and compassion for others. Are you listening…and will you answer?
©2014 Debbie Robus
* http://katiecouric.com/videos/the-amish-communitys-forgiveness-in-the-face-of-tragedy/
