Our community lost a child this past week and we are all diminished.

A little girl was murdered in a nearby town recently,

and our hearts are broken.

A brokenhearted mother buried her child yesterday,

and our society as a whole is diminished.
I cannot possibly understand the evil in a persons heart that would cause them to hurt a seven year old child.
A child playing on her apartment complex playground, then walking home,
and then...
Children, in America, ought to be able to walk home from playgrounds without fear.
What is wrong with us when they cannot?
The bible tells us the "the heart is evil and desperately wicked"
Jeremiah 17:9
I don't want to believe that
but
I know it is true.
We take the good gifts of a loving God, our children, our freedoms, our youth,
and we trample upon them.
The Riveria's lives are decimated.
The murderer's life and the life of his family, is decimated.
Our hope is in God alone.
Psalm 25:3
Without Him, we would grieve as those who have no hope.
We pray for peace and comfort for Jorley Rivera's family.
We pray for our own children and our own families.
God help us one and all.