Editor’s note: The following is a blog post from one of our members in the Paris church. For more on how the church is responding to the terrorist attacks, click here.
I was in bed on Friday night when I got a FB notification from a friend who works in a newsroom, asking if we were okay. I looked at the news before responding so I could understand what she was talking about.
Of course we were okay. We were home in bed, but my brother-in-law lives in the area, and is frequently out at night. That night was no different. We sent him a message, then searched on the Internet for more developments. A friend marked me “safe” on Facebook.
The next morning felt bleak. I explained to the kids what had happened and they absorbed it, but then quickly went back to play, and their chatter filled the household. I was tempted to be angry at them for their lack of understanding, but then I remembered: Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
I accepted their insouciance as part of life. I texted my best (Muslim) friend and sent her virtual hugs. She sent them back. We got word from my brother-in-law that all was well.
I’d planned to have a Bible study with a friend and she didn’t want to cancel. So I picked her up at the train station and brought her to my house and we studied. It was good.
That afternoon my friends decided not to attend the charity gala that we had planned on driving to together that night.
I still wanted to go. I didn’t want to give in to fear, and I thought it would be a healing sort of evening – not one where people tried to forget through senseless revelry, but one where people remembered and carried on in a spirt of love and courage.
