Tragedy in Bailey, Colorado

The photos on the front page of today's local newspapers capture the aftermath of incomprehensible violence.

Yesterday, September 27, a gunman entered a Bailey, Colorado high school. He took six students--all girls--hostage. Despite the efforts of local police and a SWAT team, the standoff ended with the gunman killing one of his hostages and then killing himself.

It's said that a picture is worth a thousand words. The news photos seem to scream the pain of parents and students. One headline reads, "UNSPEAKABLE."

I know that people will ask "Why?" and "How?" even as those involved--students, teachers, families, police--try to put the pieces together and explain what happened.

But you can't explain away the anguish. I wish I could say I mourn for the gunman, that I can spare some mercy for him. But I can't.

I grieve for the parents who sent their daughter to school yesterday--just a typical school day--and who are facing the heartbreaking reality that their sixteen-yar-old daughter will never come home again.

I have no answers, no easy way to shrug off what happened. I know life is hard--sometimes harder than I ever imagined. I also believe there is a God in heaven who loves us and who is sovereign over all of this.

Sometimes it seems impossible to reconcile those two beliefs.