God did not need more angels and heroes in Heaven

God did not need more angels and heroes in Heaven
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
December 17, 2012

Like most Americans last night I was watching the memorial service for the Shady Hook victims. As first responders entered the assembly, people stood on their feet and applauded them, offering hugs and saying "thank you" knowing how much pain they were in. They rushed to the school to save lives but they discovered within minutes, the shooting was over, the gunman was dead and so were 6 heroic teachers and 20 children.

I listened to President Obama's heartfelt words as he tried to comfort the people of Newtown and a grieving nation. When he said "God called them home" it showed how confused we all can be when something horrifying happens. We tell ourselves a lot of things to try to make sense out of the senseless.

When a person dies a natural death because bodies can get sick, wounded and age, then God in His mercy does "call them home" and then the eternal soul returns to Him. When it is not a natural death, to say "God called them home" can leave the impression God decided to do it just as much when we say "God needed more angels."

God did not need more angels and heroes in Heaven. We needed them here on earth.

This morning I was reading this. Newtown begins heartbreaking ritual of saying goodbyes

"All across this land of ours, we have wept with you," Obama said Sunday night.


Last night I waited as I listened to members of the clergy representing different faiths offered words of comfort for the right words to come. While their words were honest and from their hearts, many were still left wanting answers.

When these teachers used their bodies to save these tiny children, they were heroes and God opened His arms to perfect peace in His presence. The teachers surviving this are also heroes because they put the children in their care ahead of themselves. The tiny children were slaughtered and the survivors will be forever changed by something that was not planned for them by God.

I have often asked why God didn't strike someone dead before they were able to do what they ended up doing. The truth is, God does not murder. He did not kill the angels as they turned their backs on Him. If He would not kill them, how can we expect Him to kill evil people here on earth?

We don't know what God tried to do to prevent this. We know the shooter shot his Mom several times before he went to Shady Hook. Maybe He tried to stop the shooter through his Mom? We don't know. Maybe He was trying to get through to the shooter as he drove to the school? Maybe He tried to get through to him before he pulled the trigger the first time, the second time and many times afterwards? Again, we don't know. We do know that the shooter finally took his weapon and turned it on himself.

While we focus on the evil done by a man's freewill choices, we must also look at the actions of the teachers in their own freewill choices to protect and save. We must look at the first responders and their freewill choices to risk their lives for the sake of others everyday no matter what they face. To see the parents who made the freewill choice to love their children and the choice of a nation to be moved to grieve for them.

When souls come to this earth from Heaven, they come with a task to do, sometimes great and sometimes small. What they were supposed to do has been removed from the future of those left behind. It is then the job of the rest of us to finish what they would have done had they lived to do it. To strive to make this earth a better place in their memory. To be kinder. To be more thoughtful of others. Above all, to love as God loves us.