And The Moral Of The Story Is - Concerts and Manchester Bombing

This entry may not be a typical "and the morale of the story is" entry since I intended these morales to stem from everyday life events, and certainly hearing the news of a suicide bomber at a concert is not your everyday occurrence. At least, we hope not.

The news of the concert bombing hit me hard as I watched the reaction on the face of my 15-year-old daughter who exclaimed, "These girls at this concert were probably my little sister's age, or my age." That hit me hard realizing that many of the dead or wounded were dropped off at a concert to simply enjoy the evening.

Now, make your comments about securing borders, or make your comments about how secular music is of the devil, but make your comments at another time. While parents and friends and family are grieving at the horror is not the proper time to tweet your political or other beliefs that do nothing to help comfort or solve the problem. That's not to say that I didn't have the passing thought of how thankful I cam that my daughter is not into this kind of music..... The thought was quickly snuffed as the reality of the pain that no one should suffer was flashed before me on my television. This should not have happened to anyone!

Now, on with my thoughts...

My daughter has begun loving music. She has a few Christian artists whom she absolutely loves seeing perform. My husband and she have even driven across states to see one particular band, For King & Country or Winter Jam. The feeling of security at these events, to me, however, is often a false sense of security. We all make it through the metal detectors, but the bombing in Manchester occurred outside of the venue. This is a bit terrifying to say the least.

Before this tragedy, I attended a concert at a church with my daughter. I will say that I was a bit taken back by the lack of security, but didn't feel overly concerned since most of the attendees were Christian and meant no harm. If someone wanted to do harm, however, it would have been easy for them to infiltrate the midst of us and do their damage. I hate to admit that this did cross my mind more than once while I was sitting at the concert with my daughter.

While, the concert we attended seems so small scale and safe. After all, it is a Christian performer we went to see, don't be fooled. The kind of evil intent that happened in Manchester, London England could happen anywhere.

So, as a parent to a teenage daughter who is he age of many of the girls at that concert last night in England, I mourn for the friends, parents, and family who lost their loved one at the hand of what they are calling a terrorist act. This should never happen anywhere!

...And the morale of the story is - Sadness from an unnecessary loss is a tragedy and difficult to grasp. We start to look for someone to blame and then, as a parent, the blame turns inward asking why did I allow her to attend that concert? Why did I tell her to meet me by the front doors? Why, why why? Comfort this deep can only be found in one Loving Lord!