And what of James Holmes, the shooter? Together with us, he is a member of the
shattered creation and the broken human community. Was his part of the sphere even more utterly
shattered somehow from his birth… broken genes bearing sharper edges we now can
see? Were there things that happened to
him in his life growing up or in recent months that shattered him as never
before? He had a mother and a
father. Was he a beautiful sphere on
whom they gazed with delight before this day?
There was beauty in him: colors of the first creation. A merit scholarship out of high school,
honors on graduating from college. I see
the hues of a capable, creative mind.
Even in its shattered fragments, capable of careful planning for his
attack and booby-trapping his apartment.
Can anything good or beautiful ever be built out of the fragments
of his life? Perhaps. John Newton shattered a host of lives working
in the slave trade, yet even so, God managed to build out of this man the
author of the hymn Amazing Grace. Is this also possible for Holmes? I confess, I believe it is possible, and I
confess, I don’t believe it will happen.
Perhaps that’s part of my brokenness.
But I do believe that his jail cell is another place where God is
present, bleeding, weeping, and now at work picking up the pieces. I’m sad for both of them. I think they will be there for a long, long
time to come.
1 comment:
I have to believe that God is going to meet with his son, James, and talk to him about how he killed his brothers and sisters. I have to believe that God will teach James about the hurt he caused everyone in our family. I keep praying that God will shatter James' heart so that He can shape it into something new...
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