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Karen Spears Zacharias

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In the Presence of the Praiseworthy

In the Presence of the Praiseworthy

Last updated on: January 13, 2011 at 7:20 am by Karen Spears Zacharias

In the Presence of the Praiseworthy 2011-01-13T07:20:03+00:00 Karen Spears Zacharias

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIeIG7rR8fw

I was reading in the Psalm the other day and came upon this: With praises from children and from tiny infants, you have built a fortress. It makes your enemies silent, and all who turn against you are left speechless. (Psalm 8: 2)

It just so happened that I read that verse on Saturday, the 8th of January, the very day 9-year-old Christina Green was gunned down inside a Safeway store while clinging with all her might to the kindly neighbor lady who took her to meet a role model.

The young girl died, as did too many other good and righteous souls.

That the Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, was still breathing when paramedics reached her may very well be because a 20-year-old Congressional Intern, Daniel Hernandez, had the presence of mind and spirit to staunch the blood flow by applying his very capable hands and life-saving pressure to the gunshot wound, all the while reassuring Giffords that he was not going to leave her or forsake her.

And he didn’t.

Hernandez was still holding Giffords’ hand as paramedics pushed her on a gurney through the parking lot where two brave-hearted men tackled the shooter and a white-headed angel woman wrestled away the next round of ammo the gunman was pulling from his pocket.

Thirty-eight minutes — that’s the time it took for paramedics to triage Rep. Giffords and get her to the operating room. We will likely never know the names of all the individuals who did everything right that day, everything humanely possible to save the lives of the critically wounded and terribly shattered.

But the shooter?

We know his name and his sickness.

Destroyer.

Death.

Destruction.

The Evil One.

Have you noticed how little time lapses between his rampages lately?

He’s throwing a downright hissy fit.

Acting the fool.

The Destroyer can’t stand sharing the limelight with people who daily choose to do the right thing. The Kingdom thing.

So he does his best to overshadow

Men like Daniel Hernandez.

Doctors like Peter Rhee.

Public servants like Gabriella Giffords.

And children like Christina Green.

It’s not because the Destroyer has the upper hand, you know.

It’s because he doesn’t.

Just remember: In the presence of the praiseworthy, evil is silenced.

University of Arizona

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