How often I look at the punchy life-changing comments made by mega church pastors, faithfully facebooked and re-tweeted around the world and wished that I could come up with something that catchy and powerful- with the audience to also multiply it around the world.
But all I can come up with is the title of this post.
Last Sunday, Father's Day in Australia, we left church as usual, unaware that an unspeakable event was to unfold in our community. Within a few hours the little grandson of one of our members was sexually assaulted and murdered by someone who was trusted by the child's mother.
The little boy was taken to hospital, flown to Sydney and placed on life-support. His family drove through the night to be there with him, but nothing could be done for him.
In the six days since then family members have had to endure lengthy police interviews, publicity in the media, death threats, and name-calling.
None of us can imagine the suffering they have been through, although grief, guilt, shame, and fear would be in the mix.
So this morning, we gathered around the grandfather and his wife, and we asked for God's strength to hold them through the trial. At their request, we also prayed for the perpetrator and his family.
And we all wept together.
We will have to continue to stand with them for a long time, because the legal process will be long and drawn out, and each chapter will unleash a new wave of grief.
The punchy one-liners are forgotten in 24 hours, but nobody ever forgets the times when we share one another's grief.
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