this afternoon we watched the nationally televised memorial service for the fallen R.C.M.P. Officers, gunned down on March 3, 2005 in Alberta ... four young men, in their prime, ambushed by a known cop hater ... the large auditorium was filled with other law enforcement officers ... the platform held the Prime Minister, Governor General and other top dignitaries ... in the front rows, sat the families, those who had lost the most ...
i know many RCMP officers ... i sometimes meet them before they even decide on a full time career in enforcement ... good men and women ... with a real desire to protect and serve ... they generate a feeling of safety ... if they are around, nothing bad can happen to you ...
but something very bad did happen in Alberta ... the job seemed routine enough ... keeping an area secure ... there were 4 Members (that's what they call each other, "Members") ... big guys ... watching out for each other ... but sometimes evil can be a vapour that seeps along cracks and materializes out of the dark ... a high powered rifle, in the hands of a madman, ended the lives of these officers ... then the coward ended his own life - and placed himself in the hands of an all knowing God ...
during the somber service, we learned about these young men ...
one of the Officers was a twin ... his brother, also an RCMP, spoke for the family...
one Member had a black belt and had been an adventurer all his life ... raising the bar for others and achieving excellence wherever he went ...
one was a loving husband and father ... with another baby on the way ...
and one was a follower of Jesus Christ ... the son of a Lutheran Minister who had told his dad a year ago that if something ever happened to him, he wanted people to hear about Jesus and hear about hope ... his father honoured his son's wishes and spoke to a nation in mourning and shock over such a senseless loss of life ... he proclaimed his assurance that he will see his son again ... he also said that God understands a father’s grief, He had a Son too ... who died ... and then he delivered a message of Hope in a Risen Christ ... WOW ...
in the midst of a national tragedy, with the loss of 4 honourable men, the gospel of Christ was proclaimed in a timely fashion, by a grieving father carrying out the wishes of his son ...
May God be glorified ...
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