When your baby is born and you see them for the first time, and hold them, and smell them, all you can do is dream. You dream of when they will walk, when they will talk, their first day of school, when they trun 16, drive a car for the first time, graduate from high school, go off to college, graduate college, get their dream job, get married, start a family... These are all the dreams of a parent and they all flood into you when you first hold your baby. And for these 20 parents, those dreams have stopped. Just stopped. Now their dream is to see their child in heaven, to give them all the hugs and kisses of a lifetime that will build up...
I can't help but think about God on the night Jesus was born. He became a dad that night... A parent just as much as Mary and Joseph. In some ways harder... Because He had dreams for Jesus... Dreams to see Jesus learn to walk and talk... Dreams to see Jesus grow old... But He knew all to well that Jesus wouldn't grow old here on Earth with Mary and Joseph. He knew that one day, someone would choose to take Jesus' life...
So I know that God knows right what these parents are feeling... Because it happened to His Son too. Someone made a decission and people died. On Friday, 20 children and 7 adults... Many, many years ago our Savior on a cross... You can't help but feel the dreams that have been stolen from these families.... You can't help but pray for them...