Reunion Tears

There have been 26 seasons of Survivor and I have watched them all.  Toward the end of each season, they have a show where they bring in family members of the remaining players.  After a month away from their loved ones, you get a first hand look at these very emotional reunions.

Each time this happens, I sit and cry along with each of them.  It's emotional to watch so much love.  Families who love each other and miss each other.  It is beyond what I can comprehend. 

Tonight as I watch, there is a scrolling news flash for a missing child.  This child's mother was murdered along with two men this week.  For two days, I have watched this story unfold and read today's press release with a bit of disbelief. 

I had seen rumblings on facebook earlier in the day from friends back home that one of those murdered was a young man I used to babysit.  Within a couple hours, it was confirmed. 

For the second time in two years, a young person I had once babysit was brutally killed in a senseless act of violence.  Two years ago, it was a young lady whose husband murdered her and left three beautiful little girls without any parents. 

I don't know the details of what happened to this young man.  Honestly, it doesn't matter now what he did or didn't do or if he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

What matters and what is heartbreaking is that his family, who loved him dearly, is left to grieve this horrific violence. 

It hurts.  So young.  So much life to live.  I don't know what they became as they matured into adulthood.  I only remember who they were as children, innocent children.  They laughed and played.  They cried and sang.  They were everything that this hard, evil world had not yet made them. 

Much like the Survivor reunions, I watched them multiple times run to their parents arms, consumed by love and care.  It is difficult to believe that can no longer happen for them.

My heart breaks for the mother, the brother, the sister.  My heart aches for the children who lost their daddy. 

Like with everything that is consumed in evil, I don't understand.  I HATE it.  I often wonder where God was in their lives.