a mixture of the normal and tragic

This week was an interesting mix for Hillary and I. Hillary was studying a lot in preparation for her national counseling exam this Saturday, which she thinks went well. Sadly, we won't know the results for 6-8 weeks. There are different versions of the exam with different difficulty levels and different grading scales so it is hard to know how she did until we get the actual scores. By the end of the exam (about 4 hours) Hillary was pretty spent and asked me not to make her think any more that day. We celebrated her completion of the exam by having friends over and grilling out. It was the first time we've hung out on deck and it was a lot of fun. Neighbors and friends from church came over and it went really well.
The tragic part of this week occurred when two teenagers in West Hartford middle schools committed suicide. The boys, both 8th graders at different middle schools in this district, took their lives a day apart. A friend at church, who is a language teacher, had one of the boys in his class and was telling me about the diversity of reactions among the students: some girls who didn't even know him were falling apart emotionally, while others exhibited an almost morbid curiosity. He said that overall there was just a heaviness in the school. We were talking, wondering about how God might use this in the lives of students and families in the area.
I was able to see this mixed reaction to these suicides as I helped chaperon a middle school dance this Friday night. Some kids had pictures of the teens around their necks, while others had "R.I.P." or their friends' names written on their clothes. Some kids were visibly upset while others seemed unaffected. My guess is that for many of these students and their families they don't what to make of this tragedy and how to deal with the reality of this sort of loss. In all of this I see the need for Jesus' comforting love and strong hand.
Here is a link to a story run in the local paper concerning the suicides.