Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Columbine Flower

   Darell Scott got a call one day from a man living in Ohio, about 1,202 miles away from his home in Colorado. The man told him that he had been having reoccurring dreams about his 17 year old daughter Rachel Scott. The stranger had seen tears steaming from her eyes, trickling down her cheeks and falling onto something out of sight. He then proceeded to ask Darell if the dream meant anything to him.
   Darell said it did not.
   A few days after April 20, 1999, he called the man back when he found a drawing in his daughter Rachel's backpack. It was a sketch on a notebook piece of paper, at first glance perhaps looking like some random drawing a high school kid would do while bored in class. But with more thought maybe the realization came immediately for Darell. From two eyes in the upper left hand corner of the paper spilled forth 13 tears, falling onto a Columbine flower.
   His daughter, along with Daniel Rohrbough and 11 other victims, died in the Columbine High School Shooting on April 20, 1999, making the number of victims to die 13.
   The same number of tears she had drawn falling onto a Columbine flower.
   Drawn 30 minutes before the start of the massacre, 30 minutes before her own death.
   Daniel Rohrbough was age 15 when he was killed by a shot in the chest.
   Kyle Velasquez was age 16 when he was killed by a gunshot wound to the head and back.
   Steven Curnrow age 14 killed by a shot to the neck.
   Cassie Bernell age 17 killed by a shot to the head.
   Isaiah Shoels age 18 killed by a shot to the chest.
   Matthew Kechter age 16 killed by a shot to the chest.
   Lauren Townsend age 18 killed by multiple shots to the head, chest, and lower body.
   John Tomlin age 16 killed by a shot to the back.
   Kelly Fleming age 16 killed by a shot to the back.
   Daniel Mauser age 15 killed by a shot to the face.
   Cory DePooter age 17 killed by shots to the chest and neck.
   Rachel Scott was well known for her love of God, and mocked by name in some videos created by Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris before the massacre. It was said that the wounded Richard Castaldo had been eating lunch with her outside the school and told a reporter that Eric Harris had shot Rachel three times before pulling the bleeding girl up by the hair and asking, "Do you believe in God?"
   Her reply had been, "You know I do."
   Richard later denied that any such exchange had ever been made.
   Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris had been friends at school, and though some would say they were the fourteenth and fifteenth victims of the massacre, having shot themselves, but I would disagree. Their deaths had begun a year before, when they started planning the massacre. How do I know this?
   They did it for fame.
   Tell me that anyone truly living and not dead in satan's grip would plan these 13 deaths. Correction; they planned the deaths of hundreds, and only made out with 13. They were dead long before the massacre.
   They had started planning the shooting a year before...maybe even as Rachel wrote these words in her journal on April 20, 1998,
   Exactly a year before her death.
   "I am not going to apologize for speaking the Name of Jesus, I am not going to justify my faith to them, and I am not going to hide the light that God has put into me. If I have to sacrifice everything...
I will."
   If asked what the opposite of a wedding was, I would have said a funeral. But recently God has been teaching me something I never thought of.
   Girls spend practically our whole lives before our marriage planning our wedding. Rachel prepared for her death. Just as the wedding is not the end of happiness though we plan for that moment, it is the same for death. They are both the beginning of a long lasting unity.
   During my life, I want to be found looking inward and always ready for my funeral.
   I hope to be like Rachel Scott, found preparing myself for death.
   Because my death will definitely not be the end of me, just as it was not the end for Rachel. It was the beginning of a long lasting unity with the Savior, and with fellow Christians that have been granted the joy of Heaven.
   One last thing I think should be known. When looking up the Columbia High Shooting on YouTube, a found a comment that stated, "Why would God let something terrible like that happen to someone that believed in him?"
   Isaiah 57:1
   "The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death."
  

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sarah, I came to your blog through another blog, but I'm going to be following you now. You have an amazing talent and I love this post. Great job!

Carmen D.

Kat said...

I can't believe I get to claim you. What a heart...blessed to have you as my Sister in Christ and my daughter. Love you...

Amy said...

Sarah, May Jesus continue to grow and nurture this passion in your heart! Excited to follow your blog as you give us more glimpses of His heart in you!

Shonya said...

Spend our lives preparing for death--YES! Exactly!

Addie Talley, Photographer said...

wow, that was really moving