The massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand on March 15, 2019 is still on my mind. Fifty people were murdered and at least thirty were injured in the attack at two mosques. I imagine people in prayer, kneeling, reading from the Qur’an, vulnerable and faithful…their world severely interrupted in the most horrific way. I feel sad and lost. My heart hurts. I remember this feeling from when it happened at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA in October 2018, at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, TX in November 2017, and at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC in June 2015.
In all of this pain I wonder…what is there to do? How am I to be? How did we get here? I am looking and wondering. And then I read this story.
Adam Ibrahim Diriye was in one of the synagogues in Christchurch. He was there with his three year old son, Muaaz Adam Ibrahim. When the little boy heard the gunshots he stood up to see where they were coming from. In that one small, curious movement he was shot. When the gunfire stopped Adam picked up his son, cradled him in his arms and whispered in his ear, over and over again: God is sufficient. He is my protector. God is sufficient. He is my protector.
Muazz died just about a month before his fourth birthday.
I wonder to myself, if I were in Adam’s shoes…if my first thought would have been to turn to God. I wonder what kind of strength and faith he must have…how he must have practiced his whole life…to be able to hold his dying three year old son and think and speak in that very moment of the power of God.
The truth is…I would have fallen short.
The truth also is that I feel deeply grateful for Adam…for knowing him through this story and through my own tears as I write. Because of him I know without a doubt that trust in God makes this life bearable….in the most unbearable times.
I write overwhelmed with gratitude and tender love,
Paula