Like you, I hear/read about tragic stories every day through a variety of news outlets. However, one story I first heard about yesterday hit close to "home" for me, literally.
Growing up my family lived in only 2 different "homes" for my entire childhood. These 2 homes were probably no more than 4 miles apart and the mid-way point between them sits the elementary school I grew up attending - Concord East Side.
Concord East Side was my school "home" for 7 years (Kindergarten through 6th grade) from the fall of 1980 through the spring of 1987. Specifically, Mrs. Todt's First Grade classroom was my "home" for the 1980-81 school year.
So when I heard about the disappearance yesterday and the recovery earlier today of the body of 6-year old Andrew Hollis' body from the Elkhart River just across the street from Concord East Side that hit pretty close to "home" for me.
What hits even closer to "home" is the fact that Andrew was a first grader at Concord East Side. His teacher? You guessed it, Mrs. Todt, who is in her 34th year of teaching.
For me, this also hits close to "home" for other reasons ....
(1) My wife, Rachael, teaches first grade at Prairie View Elementary in Goshen.
(2) Being a parent of a young child myself makes it almost too much to bear to think about losing her at such a young age.
(3) As a pastor and as someone who professes faith in a God who is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-everywhere all the time, there are still certain things as a human being that don't make sense to me and never will this side of heaven.
My prayers and thoughts go out to the Andrew's family tonight! May the grace of God surround them during this incredible time of grief and mourning.
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