Tip of My Iceberg

The nation-wide March for Our Lives and Palm Sunday happened a day apart.

Same message.

Saturday, March 24, students and their supporters around the country marched to protest the lax attitude of lawmakers toward gun control.

The fear resulting from the massacre at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, where seventeen students and teachers were killed, is a reflection of students across the country who don’t feel safe in their classrooms. The halls of higher education have become, in the eyes of many, a killing field.

People are demanding answers that no one is supplying. Saturday’s marches were cries for help.

Yolanda King, the granddaughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke at the D.C. march. “I have a dream that enough is enough, and that this should be a gun-free world.”

Emma Gonzalez, an eighteen-year-old from Parkland, stood silently for six minutes and 20 seconds. The time it took a gunman to murder seventeen of her classmates and teachers. Tears coursed down her cheeks as she said, “Fight for your lives before it’s someone else’s job.”

The plea for help moved past school shootings to the senseless killing of the innocent. Eleven-year-old Naomi Walder spoke on behalf of those who’ve had no voice. “I am here today to acknowledge and represent African American girls whose stories don’t make the front pages of every national newspaper.”

All are appealing a change in law. Urging those in power to better protect their constituencies by backing harsher gun control laws.

I just returned from Austin, Texas where a bomber was targeting places around the city, killing several people, injuring more and causing fear and a sense of paralysis to blanket the city. None knew where the next bomb would explode.

There aren’t enough laws, police, firefighters and soldiers to protect us from those who desire to do harm to others.

Sunday, March 25, was Palm Sunday. The day the masses heralded Jesus as He rode into Jerusalem. “Hosanna in the highest!”

They were crying out to Him because of their hated bondage to Rome. From the despicable way they’d been treated and abused by soldiers and the Roman government. Their plea was, “Save us, we pray!”

They saw hope in Jesus. He’d performed unbelievable miracles, such as feeding the masses, raising people from the dead, healing the chronically sick. They thought He was there to save them from their misery.

They didn’t recognize they needed saving from more than physical bondage. They needed saving from the evil of this world. From an enemy that would take their souls, not just their bodies.

The religious and Roman rulers of His day were no different from our current lawmakers. They wanted to stay in power.

They wouldn’t easily give it up.

I’m encouraged by the unity of students who are willing to speak out for themselves. To take a stand for those whose voices have been silenced. I hope their message will be heard. That something positive will be done. If good people stand silent when bad things happen, we’re all to blame.

This problem won’t go away. Washington can’t save us.

Jesus can–and desires to do so.

His promise is eternal freedom that no one can take away.