What on earth just happened?

"At this my body is racked with pain, pangs seize me... I am staggered by what I hear, I am bewildered by what I see. Isaiah 21.3

"A black day for Skye" the local paper proclaimed, "as if a precious ornament has been smashed" was the way a local preacher put it. One man's violent rampage has left three households bereft, their extended families heart-broken and a whole community in shock. 50 police officers from around Scotland have been deployed to South Skye and Lochalsh to "reassure the public" whatever that means. Indeed how can sense, let alone meaning, be made of any of this?

Over the coming days, weeks and months there will be investigations and reports, funerals and memorials, court cases and counselling services. At the heart of it all is an anguished community, within which are families consumed by various levels of grief. The nature of such places is that everybody is affected but it also means that the are strong networks of support. Dealing with such incidents cannot be rushed.

In the first instance those most intimately affected need to be looked after; then those caught up in the ever-extending ripples which such traumatic incidents send out. The facts behind the events need to be understood so that appropriate action can be taken. And what of the future? Most of us will get on with our lives as before but, for some, that will not be an option. Recovery will be partial and piece-meal; life will never be the same again, the scars will remain.

We have at least three choices: give in to despair, rage against the unfairness of it all, or... recover. The first might seem inevitable but it is the third that is inevitable for life to continue. That is for another day though. For now God calls us to join him in standing with those who mourn and weeping with those who are broken. This is where healing begins.