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<\/a>Have you noticed a total absence of follow-up news about the shootings in Norway?<\/p>\nWeird isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
We have such a bi-polar media.\u00a0It obsesses for months over the mom of a murdered child. (Notice I didn\u2019t say it obsessed over the murdered child, because there is a difference, and I think the emphasis from the get-go was more on the hot chick mom.)<\/p>\n
But after dozens of children are hunted and shot down by a lunatic in a cop uniform, \u00a0the media has moved on in a few days time to more important stories, like the woman with 1,200 pairs of shoes.<\/a><\/p>\n At a memorial service on Friday in Norway,\u00a0Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said: \u201cI think July 22 will be a very strong symbol of the Norwegian people\u2019s wish to be united in our fight against violence, and will be a symbol of how the nation can answer with love.\u201d<\/p>\n So it was at a folk festival 20,000 people held hearts skyward. It was Norway\u2019s answer to the great evil that left so many of her children slain or wounded.<\/p>\n President Roosevelt\u2019s 1942 speech, which served as an inspiration to many Norwegians fighting German occupation at the time, resonates once again:<\/p>\n \u201cIf there is anyone who still wonders why this war is being fought, let him look to Norway.\u00a0If there is anyone who has any delusions that this war could have been averted, let him look to Norway; and if there is anyone who doubts the democratic will to win, again I say, let him look to Norway.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about Norway this past week as I watched our church family grieve the drowning death of Zane Gaulke.\u00a0I thought of Norway on Saturday as I attended the memorial service for Zane.<\/p>\n How does a country \u2026 a community \u2026 grieve so many of its youth at one time?<\/p>\n Pastor Kevin, our youth pastor, preached a sermon that was a great testament, not to Zane\u2019s brief life so much as it was the eternal Christ he served.\u00a0Pastor Kevin was in the ocean with Zane that day. He made it safely to shore. Zane did not, despite the desperate efforts of Kevin and others to help him.<\/p>\n It was an accident, horrific as accidents almost always are. Still there are some who would not have wanted Pastor Kevin to preach at their child\u2019s funeral. There are some who might have had a difficult time being around those who survived. There are some whose grief would have lead them to search for someone to blame.<\/p>\n Zane\u2019s parents didn\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n They answered their own great anguish in the same spirit of those in Norway.\u00a0They held out their hearts to Pastor Kevin and the others who were that day. They embraced Kevin and assured him that they know, despite their great grief, that Pastor Kevin and all those others there did everything they possibly could to save their son.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve heard a lot of sermons in my lifetime. I suspect you have, too. But this weekend I witnessed one of the greatest sermons ever, by the way Zane\u2019s parents responded to their son\u2019s death.<\/p>\n Today, we sent another group of kids out on a trip. This one to Honduras on a mission. At church this morning, people gathered to pray over those going.\u00a0I kept my eyes opened as I prayed. \u00a0There at the altar was Zane\u2019s mama, kneeling, her hand on the back of another mother\u2019s son, praying protection and blessing over that boy.\u00a0Just the day before her own son had been rolled to that altar in a casket.<\/p>\n It was a scene I hope I \u00a0never forget.\u00a0Grace like that ought to be headline news, but it\u2019s not. Grace doesn\u2019t make news the way evil does.\u00a0I could barely find a photo of the hearts raised skyward in Norway.<\/p>\n This morning before I went to church I received the following email from a reader I don\u2019 t know:<\/p>\n Dear Karen,<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n This has been a most horrific week for me.\u00a0 One of the very worst in my whole long life.\u00a0 Why \u2013 ? <\/em><\/p>\n Because I am originally from Oslo, Norway.\u00a0 Transplanted to Maryland, USA, via California, via Minnesota, Via Apartheit, South Africa.<\/em><\/p>\n (12 years there. . .)<\/em><\/p>\n Words are not in my vocabulary;\u00a0 Norwegian, English or Afrikaans that might remotely describe my state of\u00a0 heart-head \u2013 mind \u2013 soul \u2013 body as a result of 7\/22\/2011 of my home town\/country.\u00a0 Just \u00a0\u201csick\u201d \u00a0Maybe.\u00a0 But, \u00a0fear is NOT part of it. <\/span><\/em>As providence would have it;\u00a0 in the midst of all this hurt, I find your book \u201cWhere Is Your Jesus NOW?<\/a>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 in a book store in Washington, D.C. I started reading it the same afternoon \u2026. T.<\/em><\/p>\n Where\u2019 s your Jesus Now?<\/em> is a question we all have to answer someday, sooner or later.<\/p>\n May each of us remember to look to Norway, to Zane\u2019s parents before responding.<\/p>\n