On live tv, I watched the Florida shooter appearing in court for the first time outside of his arraignment. • Coincidentally, I also saw a special interviewing the married couple who were providing housing for Nikolas Cruz -they took him in after his adoptive mother died (in Nov). Besides odd behavior they say he remained extremely respectful and reserve. He was always acting super apologetic and remorseful even if he didn’t do something right. He was not rebellious. But he was a loner. There were 18 police calls on his violence. • As I watched Nikolas Cruz in court, empty, broken, sitting in the miry pit........................I felt guilty. I felt guilty because I stared at my tv and I felt bad for him. I might be the only human in the world right now who can say that because it feels like I am betraying the innocents of those who were slaughtered. *First and foremost, I am devastated for the innocent families who lost their loved ones and even hurt for the children who are scarred for life. I pray for them. • I stand for corporal punishment, I believe in consequences. I have even claimed that for those who abuse, torture, or even kill children, I would have no problem pulling the handle down on them. • So as I sat watching, believing Nikolas Cruz deserves punishment even until death, my heart grieves for God. Right before our eyes we witness an empty soul. Evil. Whether we like to admit it or not, Cruz was created in the imagine of God and God absolutely planned for him to be here even before he was created in his biological mother’s womb. He is STILL loved more than all the treasures in this world, by a Father who gives an everlasting love no matter how bad we are. We get the option to say “no” or “yes” I surrender and need you Lord, up-until our last breath. How sad that Cruz doesn’t know. He doesn’t see or feel. He sold his soul to the devil. That should grieve all of us. • One lost...what could we have done to comfort, befriend, and even encourage this teen? How long has this teen felt hollow, rejected, or as an outcast? Which one of us Christians could have stepped in? There was and is only one cure for Cruz and that’s the redemption of a Savior. Many people have endured a harder life than Cruz and have never sprayed bullets among a high school, killing innocent children. Many read what I write and are angry that I can use the word redemption in the same sentence as Nikolas Cruz- as if Grace should not be given to him- ever. The thought of him rotting in hell is what we all “feel” we want for him. Regardless of why, what and who... regardless of politics and gun control laws and even regardless of mental health debates- every person should grapple with this, —-> We don’t deserve heaven anymore than Cruz deserves hell. God doesn’t love him any less than us either. That can blow our minds just saying that. He is God’s child and what a travesty that God lost one of his children to darkness. • If there is one lost, we must find them. If there is one weirdo we must pour into them. If someone is hurting, we must comfort them. Just look what happens when we lose our people to such darkness!! Evil. But, to whom much is given, much is expected (Luke 12:48). Just maybe if we all could view people the way God does, perhaps this lost soul would have seen hope in a world that ate him up. This world and what it offers is darkness. What we as Christians should be offering is light and hope. • Cruz cannot blame anyone but himself. He shall reap heavy consequences just as he deserves. But, maybe, just maybe ....what Nikolas Cruz meant to harm us, God can use for His good (Genesis 50:20). God can show us the pain in this whole event and through that we can see how much God really does love us and how we ALL need a Savior to lead us. To see the deepest darkness, we should long to value the saving light. • • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” ~1 John 1:5-9
