I Just Don't Understand
Feb/073
Time for a more serious post. Everyone in our area is talking about the sentencing of Liz Carroll yesterday. She is facing a sentence of at least 54 years in prison for the murder of her three-year-old foster son, Marcus Fiesel.
If you live in the Cincinnati area, you're well acquainted with this whole tragic drama that started last summer. And it's far from over. The trial of David Carroll hasn't even begun.
This whole thing is especially poignant for my family because the timing of Liz Carroll's sentencing eerily coincided with the sentencing of Nick Toscano. Before we moved to Ohio, we were part of the ministry team at Woodland Heights Christian Church in Crawfordsville, Indiana. In November of 2005, the WHCC family, as well as the entire community, was rocked by the death of one-year-old Gabriel Cole Preheim. His grandparents are members of WHCC. When his mom was in high school, she was in my youth group.
Little Gabriel's funeral was one of the most heartbreaking scenes I've ever witnessed. I had never seen a casket that was so small it only required two pallbearers. Just one of the many images from that day that are forever burned into my mind. But the worst part of that whole tragic situation was that this child died at the hands of his stepfather, Nick Toscano.
Liz Carroll and Nick Toscano. Marcus Fiesel and Gabriel Preheim. These situations are huge reminders that I don't understand everything that happens in this world…and they also make me look forward to the next world.
Leave a comment
No trackbacks yet.
9:07 am on February 24th, 2007
"they also make me look forward to the next world."
How about devoting some attention to improving THIS world?
10:06 am on February 24th, 2007
Appreciate the comment. And you're right…the church's mission is not only to focus on the next world, but also to work hard at bringing healing to this world. Never meant to suggest that we be so "heavenly minded" that we're of no "earthly good." We are called to engage our culture by loving and serving people. No doubt about it. The only thing I meant in this post is that these situations make me hunger for heaven WHILE serving on earth.
5:36 pm on February 25th, 2007
It is heartbreaking. Jill and i went to the sentencing to be with Brian and Anita. They are doing as well as could be expected. This has brought us so much closer to them but Brian broke my heart when he had his chance to speak. He misses Cole so much. When these things come, it is such an opportunity for the church to really minister the way God intended.