Though I’m wary of her cult leader-like influence and status, catching Oprah’s show tonight reminded me of how important and good she can be. Her guests were a married couple whose family car was hit by a drunk driver. For one hour, on the side of the road, the mother held the severed head of her 7 year old daughter. It had become detached from the girl’s seat-belted body due to the 70mph impact of the drunk driver’s car. Oprah ended the show with the comment: “I want you all to remember this mother holding her daughter’s severed head on the side of the road before you decide to drive drunk.”
Her poignant interview with the parents on the acute and abiding pain they feel over the loss of their daughter two years later, its impact on their marriage and family, how they avoid observing the holidays lest they act like they had forgotten Katie, how they still can’t believe it happened to them, the mother’s response that she wasn’t as worried about her daughter at that accident so much as about themselves because she believed Katie was in heaven and they weren’t sure how they could live without her, oh God . . . <a day later> Realization: there is only one lens through which such a horrific, faith-crushing incident can and should be seen:
what a truly profound analogy.
I saw that broadcast and it made me breakdown in tears weeping. Thanks so much for that perspective.
Amazing insight!
Thanks for that.
Amazing? Profound? Am I missing something? What positive thing could ever be related to what happened here without insultingly degrading the horror of the thing?!
Madman, get a grip. It is you who has in fact degraded the horror of the crucifixion by objecting to its application to this terrible incident.
One point I was trying to make with the analogy is that if this horrific incident totally demolishes one’s faith, then most likely, that person either did not have faith in the first place or he temporarily left the foot of the cross which is the only place where true faith can grow.