Be near, O God
Be near, O God of us
Your nearness is to us our good...
-Shane Barnard

There was a girl killed in Houston this weekend. A girl I didn't know. But she's close to the heart of at least one person I love. Please go to Mandy's blog for the story about Ashton Glover, and a link to the story on her death. And then please pray. For Ashton's family and her church and friends. For those who will sit and listen and weep with the grieving. Please pray that God will be near, and that they will know it.

Every time I hear stories like this, my heart goes right back to Cheryl, my friend who was killed in a car wreck in August 2004. Maybe that's the way it always is...maybe every great grief takes you back to the first one for the rest of your life. Because I learned what grief is when Cheryl died. I gained just a little bit of empathy for families who lose children. Her death hurt, but it made my soul bigger. And in the months afterward I discovered that there is always hope. That makes me, somehow, able to share in the grief of the Glovers, this family I don't know. And to pray that they will continue to hope. For "hope does not disappoint us..." And hope springs eternal...