Grace In The Face Of Evil

Reading about the Grandfather standing by the dead body of his grandchild, murdered in cold blood in her schoolhouse, I found myself deeply moved.
He wasn't raging against the awful unfairness of the murder of his granddaughter. He wasn't spewing hate and raising his fist to the heavens in anguish demanding to know, "Why?" He was admonishing his community to embrace the wife and children of the man who held a gun to little girl's heads and executed them.
He stood quietly and solemnly said, "This family has lost their husband and father. Show them compassion."
The Amish community embraced his words and while busy laying their children in newly dug graves, they took time to walk over and bring food and supplies and comfort to the murderers’ family.
While medical bills were still piling up from their children who were struggling to survive from bullet wounds, the Amish community scraped together money to start a fund to help the family of the man who brutalized their children.
This, people, is the very definition of grace. Of compassion. Of forgiveness. Of human goodness.
And I am touched. Deeply.
This past year has been filled with human ugliness that has greatly affected MiniWarrior and I. Ugliness so vile to me that I have been struggling with anger and depression trying to come to grips with it all in my mind. I hadn't been able to get a grasp on it to start really healing until I read about the Amish response to their tragedy.
These people lost their children. Lost them through a murderous act. They had to bury their children while rumors of intended sexual abuse of their children whispered around them. Two most heinous acts that parents world over fear happening to their children. A fear so ingrained, so deep that it wakes us from sleep and has us standing over our sleeping children whispering to the gods to keep them safe.
Seeing their act of incredible Grace in the face of the darkest Evil...I felt something loosen inside me. I felt a slight shift where anger had been digging in its roots. A loosening. A soft warmth trickling into a hollow place.
Their strength has encouraged me. Healed me in a way I didn't know how to.
Grace. The proverbial middle finger in the face of evil.
You can touch me...but you cannot break me.
This people, is true power.