An hour ago, I was listening to music, getting a lot of work done, and thinking about what I was going to make for dinner.

But everything changed with one innocent social media break.

It started with one retweet: “Stay away from the finish line of Boston Marathon. There’s been an explosion.” Since then, reports have been forthcoming, each one worse than before.

My news feed is filled with friends and fellow runners expressing their devastation on social media–and I can’t look away.

Are their loved ones okay? they wonder. Why would anyone do something like this? What is it about this week of April that historically reeks of tragedy?

When things like this happen, my thoughts naturally turn toward my daughter. She isn’t even two yet and she’s constantly smiling. All she knows is security. The faces she sees and recognizes on a daily basis are all people who love her. She trusts them because she senses that they are good to their core.

She doesn’t understand evil. She doesn’t understand that there are people in this world who would rig bombs at a high-traffic area during one of the United States’ most historic sporting events.

I think this is the worst part of being a parent: knowing that one day our children’s eyes will be opened to the existence of evil in this world, whether they are victims of a senseless crime like Aurora or Newtown or the Boston Marathon or the Oklahoma City bombing, or they become prey to bullies and people who kill just to kill or are mean just to be mean.

Call me naive or ignorant, but I don’t know how parents who don’t know the Lord can cope with things like this. My faith is the only thing that reminds me that there’s hope in these situations. That God gives people inexplicable comfort when it doesn’t make sense and inspires people to wrap their arms around the wounded when they need it the most.

I hope I can always point my daughter toward the cross as she becomes increasingly aware of sin, when things like this inevitably shake her world.

Praying for every individual who was affected by this tragedy, directly or indirectly, that they will feel warmth and hope in the middle of this. That God will give them glimpses of his comfort and love, no matter what they believe.

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