Distressing times

Hillsborough Memorial, Flickr

I do cry easily, if I see someone else crying I cry.  If I watch a programme where people are distressed I cry.

The Hillsborough Disaster occurred on 15th April 1989, 96 Liverpool Football Club fans were crushed to death at the Leppings Lane end of Sheffield Wednesday's Football club's ground (Hillsborough).

I remember watching the images on TV, where I couldn't breathe for distress at those poor people, many of them were children, being crushed behind those big metal fences that football grounds used to have.

Hubs was going to go to that match with a friend and his dad, but his mom said no at the last minute and so he didn't.  The one time a young lad is glad his mother said no.

Today thousands of government papers are being released and an independent inquiry's report into those documents will be revealed.  The families of the victims are still unhappy with the accidental death verdict. As yet, no organisation has been held to account, though reports have shown that the disaster was at least in part caused by a lack of police control...and those awful metal fences penning people in like animals.

So painful for those families who cannot find peace.  And that's my prayer, that justice be done (whatever that may be, for God knows all), and that these families are able to find peace and resolution at long last.

9/11 Memorial

Yesterday it was 9/11.  This is another human disaster that sticks in my memory so clearly.  I was at my mum's, with my tiny baby Chatterbox, when the breaking news came.  Even now when I watch programmes about it I can barely breathe.  The human cost both to the victims and their family and friends.  So distressing.  I've been praying for those families and friends of the victims - and those who escaped from the falling towers but still suffer physical and psychological sickness as a result.

Oh, a day is coming...

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
(Revelation 21:1-4)

Come Lord Jesus!

(Scriptures from NIV)