Present with the LORD

Where the Covenant Six are today

I drew the 6 victims of the Covenant school shooting, headmaster Katherine Koonce, custodian Mike Hill, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, and 9-year-old students Hallie Scruggs, Evelyn Dieckhaus and William Kinney in the presence of the Lord.  

IMMORTAL SOUL

“We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8)

When Nashville Police entered Covenant school to stop the shooter, they found the dead bodies of 6 victims. Three adults and three children who were only 9-years-old. Tragic, yes, but here’s some good news: their souls are still alive in heaven. Let me explain.

You are not a body with a soul. You are a soul with a body. When your body dies, your body will remain on earth but your soul, which is your intellect, emotion and will, your real life, will return to God. That is what the Apostle Paul said in the verse above. When his soul left his body, he was immediately with the Lord.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 says, “The dust returns to the ground it came from and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

That’s the good news. Now here’s the bad news. Not everyone is going to a better place after they die. Look at what Jesus said, in John 14:6, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” That means, people who have not trusted in Jesus, will not go to heaven. No, their eternal home will be in hell, a place of “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:41)

Who is Jesus that he can claim such a thing?

Colossians 1:15-17 says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. And it says, “Everything was created through him and for him.” (Colossians 1:16) Jesus made you for himself.

Since God is Spirit and can’t die, God became a man so that He could die for the sins of mankind. Then he proved he had power over death by rising from the grave on the third day and offers eternal life to whosoever believes in him.

Contrary to most cartoonists who draw memorial cartoons, I only draw a heavenly homecoming if the people had a testimony for Jesus Christ.

I drew the Covenant victims in heaven because I assumed that in order to work at Covenant church and school, the adults had to be true born-again believers. And Jesus said in Matthew 19:14, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

This promise from God gives us hope. Look at 1 Thessalonians 4:13, “dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope.” Followers of Jesus will be reunited with loved ones and that gives us hope.

There is nothing sadder for me than to go to a funeral where Jesus is never mentioned. There’s no hope.

But the Bible gives us more good news: Followers of Jesus will get a new body when he returns at the resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:54 says, “For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.” We will receive a glorified body that will never get sick, never grow old and never die.

How do we receive these promises? Repent of your sins and believe in Jesus who died for your sins. Romans 10:13 says, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

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GREATER LOVE

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

(John 15:13)

Greater love was exhibited by headmaster Katherine Koonce when a deranged shooter began firing through the doors of her school. In an attempt to save the kids at her school, Koonce demonstrated sacrificial love.

News reports say Koonce was on a Zoom call when she heard the first shot. Nashville City Councilman Russ Pulley, an ex-FBI agent told Fox News, “She immediately ended the call, got up, and headed straight for the shooter. She did what principals and headmasters do; she protected her children.”

Metro Nashville police chief John Drake said during a Tuesday press conference he is “sure” there was a confrontation because of the “way she was lying in the hallway.”

Why would God allow this to happen at a Christian school? No one has the answer. The Bible is full of examples of God’s faithful followers being killed by evil people.

Hebrews 11 is called the “Hall of Faith” and lists many people who God used to do miraculous things. But then it says in verses 35-38:

“There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. ³⁶ Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— ³⁸ the world was not worthy of them.”

We don’t know why God saves some and not others. But for the Christian, death is not the end. It’s the first day in eternity.

RIGHT LINKS

New York Post: Covenant School headmaster Katherine Koonce ran toward shooter before she was killed.

The Federalist - David Harsanyi: Nashville heroes expose the lies of Uvalde cowards. Nashville Police released bodycam footage of its response to a school shooter.

WND - Bob Unruh: 'Murder' threats now explode against Christians for LGBT, abortion views. 'People who believe they're God can't stand to be reminded that they're not.'

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