After Orlando (Leighton)

When the news of the terrible massacre in Orlando came, two friends in ministry were asking what words of wisdom any of us might have.

I could find no words.

There is a time for words – words of anguish, of fury, words of comfort to those who have lost loved ones, words of bewilderment. And a time for action, to do all possible to prevent such killings.

But is there also a time just for silence?

For the hundreds of girls kidnapped by BokoHaram in Nigeria? And the hundreds of refugees drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean?

I was reminded of that passage in the book of Revelation, just after the Lamb opens the seventh seal of judgment, when “there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” (Revelation 8:1)

I wonder – when such terrible things are done – whether God averts his gaze, and is for a time silent, before how we have ravaged his beautiful creation?

Is there for us a time to be silent? To stop talking? To ponder? To pray?

And the irony – that it takes words even to say this.

May God have mercy on us.

Leighton Ford

photo cred: NBC News