We shouldn't be able to comprehend this violence

Senseless violence has always been a part of every culture. It's as old as Cain and Abel. It's sad, devastating and unfortunate. We look at these acts and think to ourselves, "How could someone do that to another human being... especially little children." My mother and many others had seen much violence and death in the Movement but nothing shocked them more than the death of the four little girls at the Sixteen Street Baptist Church in Sunday School. My mother said, "You knew you could die... you were willing to die yourself," but for someone with so much hate to kill innocent children was beyond measure. She said it was the saddest day of the Movement when they buried those children. I'm reminded of Jerry Mitchell's words about the bombing when he said the title of the lesson at church that day was, "The Love That Forgives". How true that is. We can't comprehend the violence and that's good. We shouldn't be able to. We also don't know what was going through that person's mind, the demons they battled or about the life they lived that lead them to that point. I like to believe that people are inherently good but sometimes we make mistakes and sometimes they manifest themselves to an extreme degree. Fortunately, however, this is not the rule but the exception. There is a scripture wherein the Lord reminds says, " I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men." He didn't say it would be easy and it might seem a little pointless since the killer is dead but we must be willing to do so, otherwise, we lose a bit of our hope in humanity, we start to give in to some of the ugliness that exists in the world instead of seeing all the good that does take place. The little children are in a better place and for us that remain here it is our responsibility to make certain the world we now live in can be a better one as well.