A few days ago I saw a heart-rending sight. I came upon a suicide just as the police had arrived and put a blanket over the body. Someone (I could not tell you who they were or even their gender) had jumped off of the pedestrian walkway of the Burrard Street bridge to the sea-wall below. I spent a silent 30 minutes in the pool where I swim lengths after witnessing this sight. As I did I thought and prayed about that person’s life. What had caused them to be so hopeless that they had made this choice? Why were there no alternatives for this person? Who was missing them right then? Was someone wondering where they were?
Today, I went by again. A few bouquets of flowers marked the spot. One person had written some words addressed to the deceased. I am sure the words were heart-felt and meant to bring peace but as I read them I thought how empty the words seemed. Could any words not seem empty after the fact. I wondered what I would have said to this person if I had had the chance to speak to them before this tragedy. What could one say?
What they needed was hope. We all need hope. Our world tries to convince us that there is no hope. But there is hope for the hopeless. There is hope in one Person. And that one Person has left us His words of hope in Red Letters.
There is love in the red letters
There is truth in the red letters
There is hope for the hopeless
Peace and forgiveness
There is life in the red letters
In the red letters.*
*”Red Letters,” DC Talk from the album Supernatural, 1998.
Songwriters: Michael De Wayne Tait; Kevin Max Smith; Toby McKeehan; Christopher Harris; Mark James Heimermann.