The death of a child is always “tragic,” I guess

I started to use the term “tragic” in the subject of this post, but then realized it seemed redundant to describe a child’s death that way.

Found on Shaun Groves’ blog, but he’s quoting the Tennessean:

One of contemporary Christian music star Steven Curtis Chapman’s six children was killed this afternoon when she was struck by a car said to be driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the family’s Williamson County home.

This is just an awful story. I truly feel for the Chapman family.

My family was having dinner one night when I was a kid when we heard some loud and strange noises outside. Yelling, maybe? And then sirens nearby. We all left the table to go out and see what might be happening. Two doors down, the neighbor dad had been working on a car in the driveway and it was up on a jack. The youngest girl, maybe 4 years old, was playing near the car, and the youngest boy, maybe 6 or 7 — close to my age at the time — had climbed in through the open driver’s door and shifted the car into gear, nearly injuring his father, and crushing his sister to death. My mom held me back from viewing the scene once she took in what was going on, so I was spared having to see her body being taken away, but it all remains vivid and gruesome in my memory.

I recall also that the family moved away shortly thereafter. I’m sure there were myriad reasons, but it has always struck me that it would be impossible to imagine what changes in a family when a young child dies.

All of that to say: while I don’t pray, I will definitely be thinking of the Chapman family, and I will be hoping they come through this intact.