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A Thief Comes In At Night

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By STEVE OTTO

sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: November 19, 2008

They are the children of the light, those devastated young men and women who will come together this morning to mourn the loss of one of their own.

They are in their teens, those strange years when you no longer are a child but still are not quite admitted into the world of adults, unless it is to risk your life in the service of your country.

Explain those distinctions to the hearts and souls grappling with death instead of the joys of the coming Thanksgiving holiday and those moments in time that usually are set aside as memories to look back on as among the best of times.

Allyson Faulk, a senior at Plant High School, was killed Friday evening when she lost control of the Ford Expedition she was driving. The SUV went off Interstate 75 south of Gainesville, hit several trees and caught fire. She died instantly. Three friends riding with her on a trip to a football game at Florida State University in Tallahassee were injured.

Struggling To Explain

Like so many tragedies in our lives it came out of nowhere, completely unexpected and to someone with a future as unlimited as the stars in the sky.

Many of her classmates are expected to be among those gathered today at Christ the King Catholic Church for her funeral.

I was at a Mass on Sunday at Christ the King where Desmond Daily, newly elevated to the title of monsignor, struggled to explain how things like this are allowed to happen.

He went to the reading of the morning, taken from Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, which, among other things, talks about disaster and how it comes upon us like a "thief at night." The monsignor added that these things happen in the "twinkling of an eye." There may be no warning and no reason.

I can remember a few months ago when my son was coming down I-75 from Tallahassee and at almost the same location suddenly found himself spinning wildly, his small car crushed by a tractor-trailer. In an instant, his life as well as ours was thrown into confusion as we struggled to understand what had happened. He was not injured, although his car was destroyed.

A Time And A Season

For everything there is a time and a season, Paul wrote, although the passages still don't make it clear to me why there ever are times for things as wrong as this. But that only leads to why there are wars and human disasters beyond comprehension.

Plant High School, like every school, is a world unto itself where seemingly insignificant events often are magnified in their importance. There is nothing insignificant about a life being lost, and in the close-knit world of Plant's student body, it must be frightening.

The passage continues with the lines, "For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness."

I know the Bible passage wasn't referring to young people when it talked about "children of the light." But those teens gathered together this morning represent the light of our future. Today many of them are hurting over the loss of one of their brightest and need to be in our prayers.

Keyword: Otto Graphs, to read and comment on Steve Otto's blog.

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