Sean Luke

Recently the brutal killing of six-year-old Sean Luke rocked my country. The heinous nature of his demise not to mention the cruel way in which he was assaulted prior to his death was something that was hard for anyone to take in. That two boys allegedly perpetrated these monstrous acts: one 13 and one 16 was even harder to swallow. The identities of the boys, because of their ages were never released in the press. Today however I received a picture in my e-mail that purported to be the one of the alleged offenders.

I don’t know what I was expecting but somehow I expected that a child that could conceive of such acts and perform them on another younger, more defenseless child would look somehow warped and evil and ugly. But he didn’t. And it hurt to look at that picture. I didn’t expect that but there it was: a wealth of horror, dread, pity? that startled me by its very presence and intensity. He just looked so normal. With his low-cut hair and smooth dark skin he could be my god-son in the next couple of years or any one of the Sunday school students I used to teach at one time. It was scary.

It’s for reasons like these, besides wanting to ever be with the Lord that makes my heart say ‘Come Lord Jesus come.’