Praying For Boston

Horrible evils done to innocent bystanders never make sense. They gouge at your heart and make your head spin.  Even more so when you have stood in the very places where they stood.

This was a picture that Robin snapped of me as we waited on a taxi in front of the Lenox hotel on the corner of Exeter and Boylston Streets in Boston back in February of 2011.

And this picture of our hotel was taken from Prudential Skywalk Observatory the day we left.  You can see the yellow Boston Marathon Finish Line running across Boylston (just above the hotel).

As soon as I heard the news yesterday my mind recalled the surroundings and the people we met. People who worked at the hotel, the shops and the restaurants that line the beautiful Back Bay area.  And along with most of America, I grieved...for the families of those lost, for the injured, for the shell shocked participants & spectators, for the first responders...for Boston...and for all of us.

And while I don't even presume to make sense out of senseless acts of evil...I found encouragement in this morning's Scripture reading (taken from the New Living Translation).

For he has not ignored or belittled the suffering of the needy.
    He has not turned his back on them,
    but has listened to their cries for help.
Psalm 22:24

Lord, help us all!