Ansley knew some of the kids in the car. She's actually good friends with a couple of the girls. One of her best buds is still in the hospital recovering. This is Ans and another friend with Deanna in her hospital room.
One girl, whom our girls didn't know very well, died from her injuries. Today they will have her funeral and Ansley will be going. She and Ansley were in the same theater group although Ansley had only met her the week before. Her name is Lindsey and last semester she was out of the country in ACU's study abroad program, so Ansley only met her as the new semester started.
Lindsey's parents invited the theater group to their house for supper last night and asked them to perform at her funeral today. I know it won't be easy for them but I know they will all do a great job.
We pray often for our daughters' safety. We pray often for all our kids' safety day to day but it seems there is a tendency to pray more for B and Ans. Being 5,000 miles away isn't always the easiest. If there is a problem we can't just get in the car and drive to their campus in two hours the way our parents could. It's a day or two of catching airplanes. Why do we pray more when the distance is greater? I've never understood that about human nature and yet I continue to do it.
Ansley was actually going with that group last Friday night. For some reason, at the last minute, she decided to go with another group of friends to another thing.
I shudder to think what our week would be like if she had been in that truck and had died, but she wasn't.
Does that mean God listened to our prayers more than those of Lindsey's parents? Of course not. I'm sure they prayed regularly for Lindsey's safety as well. Maybe even more than we pray for our girls. I don't believe God honored our prayers more than any one else's. Sometimes life happens and it isn't always the warm fuzzy we want it to be. And yet God still uses that to His glory if we allow Him to work.
So easy for me to type that with all my kids safe, but I believe it after hearing what is going on at ACU this week. How the president, students and teachers are being God's family in this time of sadness. And, more importantly, how everyone is keeping their eyes on God during all this.
If your faith is weakened today, if your faith eyes need refocusing, if your faith needs a boost then you will want to read about what God is doing in the midst of tragedy.
Read about what the survivors are saying about what happened. Read about what the first people on the scene of the accident say. Read what the president said. Read about what God is doing in the middle of all this.
You can read it all by clicking here.
Please pray for Lindsey Smith's family (the young woman who died). Life goes on for everyone else around them but they must begin a new life that no longer includes their daughter. Please pray for God's supernatural comfort for them and for Him to send so many people to comfort them for the next days, weeks and months. That the people around them don't forget that this healing will take a long, long time. Pray for God's family to be God's family to them right now.
As sad as I know they are right now I get the feeling her funeral today will be a celebration of her life.
As Callie says in the article, "I wouldn't want to come back from where she is now."
May we all live this day like that. With our eyes on the kingdom prize and not on things of this world.
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