My daughter is in her Freshman year at Pepperdine. This past week a group of senior girls were walking in a busy part of the pacific coast highway just four miles from Pepperdine when a young man lost control of his car and slammed into parked cars that smashed into the group of girls. Four senior girls were killed. 

The Pepperdine community is in deep mourning. Though my daughter and her suite mates did not know the girls personally, they have been crying together this week. During the campus worship time there was standing room only and when the names of the girls were read, a wailing arose. 

The agonizing pain the families feels unimaginable.  

Some suffering is too much to understand. 

These are the tragedies that require supernatural help. There is no hope unless God brings it. I picture the families and ask God to cover them with comfort, with strength, with the will to persevere in the face of the unthinkable. 

When I walked through the overwhelming sorrow of my dad’s physical absence, I felt God giving me courage which I can only ascribe to prayer and a gift given from outside myself. 

God with us in our profound suffering, loving us in the dark abyss.  

I am worn out from my groaning.

All night long I flood my bed with weeping
    and drench my couch with tears.
My eyes grow weak with sorrow;
    they fail because of all my foes.

Away from me, all you who do evil,
    for the Lord has heard my weeping.
The Lord has heard my cry for mercy;
    the Lord accepts my prayer. – Psalm 6: 6-9

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