Praying for Jordanian Pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh and His Family

I'm a news junkie. I am not one of those people who says, "I don't watch the news because it upsets me." News is my high. 

Rarely does something occur that upsets me so much that it interferes with my ability to focus on work or household chores, etc. 

ISIS' slickly produced video of their torture murder of Jordanian pilot Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh was one of those news events. 

I realized that the only way I could deal with this news was to pray. 

I greatly admire what Shep Smith of Fox News did with the video. I don't have a TV but I have internet access. I saw Smith's reporting on the web. 

Smith didn't show the ISIS snuff video. Rather, Smith described it. His description was articulate and thorough. It was a remarkable journalistic service. If you have not seen Smith's video, it is on youtube here. 

In 2002, PBS' Frontline broadcast an amazing documentary about 9-11, "Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero." 

NYC police officer Kim Coleman described a phone call from her daughter who worked at the WTC, "I realized that the first plane hit my daughter's building. And as I bent over to pick up the telephone, my daughter was on the other line. And she was telling me that she was scared and that it was real smoky in there and they couldn't breathe."

Coleman's daughter died in that fire and smoke. 

It could be unbearable to be a parent and to lose a child that way. 

Coleman was comforted. She said, "That night, when I went to bed, after I finally was able to lay down, there was a light that shines through my window. And for some reason, this light was real bright. And I opened my eyes, and I saw an angel. She was dressed in white and she had a smile on her face, and I took that to believe that she was letting me know that my daughter was in heaven and that she was OK.

I just pray every day that she didn't suffer and maybe she just fell off to sleep and she didn't feel anything. I know she was scared, but I know my daughter also has faith in God, so I know she was praying.

I never question why God didn't intervene. I often ask the question as to why he picked her, but I have come to the conclusion that I felt God knew something I didn't know. And maybe he felt that- maybe she was- even though she was here 23 years, that she was suffering a lot more than I knew about. And I felt that God knew best. I always felt that way when he takes someone, that he knows better than we do." Transcript here.

I hope and pray for such comfort for all who mourn. May God comfort the family of Moaz al-Kasasbeh. May his killers encounter justice. 

Jordanian Pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh

My prayers for him.