A Tragic News Story...

This morning I am sitting here at my desk with hot cup of french vanilla coffee and a heart that is heavy with grief over the loss of a missing Tacoma (about 25 minutes from where I live) girl who was found dead yesterday. Her name was Zina Linnick and she was a twelve year old girl who was kidnapped from an alley by her house while watching fireworks. If you want to read the whole story you can go to http://www.foxnews.com/ it's the top story for today.

Last night I caught the first headline of the news...Zina Linnick's body has been found. For some reason I started to cry. I didn't know this girl or her family, but my heart was grieving in a way that it would if I had lost someone dear and close to me. Now I watch the news often and hear about a lot of tragic things that take place, but this one was different. At first I started to think about the horrible person who killed this sweet little innocent 12 year old girl! I hoped that he was caught and thrown into prison for the rest of his life! Then somewhere in my fiery and anger I started pray; Lord save this man from his sin, and help him to realize that what he did was horribly wrong. "You were to Israel a forgiving God, though you PUNISHED their misdeeds." Psalms 99:8.

I started to think about Zina's family and how they took the news when the police informed them that her body was found; the verse Psalm 34:18 came to my heart, The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." I started to pray for her family, and then my thoughts were brought to the moments leading up to Zina's death. What was going through her mind? I'm sure she was full of terror and scared beyond belief. I know this is a horrible thing to think about, but I couldn't help but wonder. Then the passage from Psalm 23 came to my mind...the last verse of that chapter says..."and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever". My prayer is that Zina is in heaven with Jesus today rejoicing with the angels with her innocence and beauty restored!

I realized this morning that my thoughts and emotions from last night and even into this morning were directly from the Lord. I believe He put this story on my heart for a reason. I will continue to pray for this family as they go through this horrific loss. It's kind of neat that as Christ followers we get the privilege of being called upon by God to pray!! I'm so glad that I know HIM and HE knows me!!