Christmas tree angel brings hope in wake of Newtown school shootings

My son made this construction paper angel in elementary school. It’s topped our tree every year since.

The other night when I looked up at the angel, tears pooled in my eyes. He was 6 when he made the ornament, the same age as Benjamin Wheeler and Allison Wyatt and Avielle Richman and Jessica Rekos and Emilie Parker and Jack Pinto and Noah Pozner and Jesse Lewis and James Mattioli and Caroline Previdi and Madeleine Hsu and Catherine Hubbard and Ana  Marquez-Greene and Dylan Hockley and Charlotte Bacon and Olivia Engel.

Six.

When you’re 6, you have your whole life ahead of you.

When you’re 6, your biggest worry should be how much the Tooth Fairy’s going to give you for the nugget you spent all day wiggling loose.


When you’re 6, your biggest worry should be what character Band-aid looks coolest on your latest knee scrape. Hello Kitty? Transformers? Maybe Disney Princesses or  Spider-Man,

When you’re 6, your worry should NOT be that a madman might break into your school and kill as many people as he can.  

I’ve been blessed to have my son in my life for 19 years -- 13 more than the parents of the 6-year-olds killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School will have with their children.

I’ve watched him play baseball and basketball, perform in school concerts and church plays.

I’ve helped him learn his times tables and the parts of speech -- and do more science projects than I care to count.

I’ve witnessed him grow from a boy into a man, graduate and go to college.

And, God willing, we’ll have many more years together. 

He might marry and have children. He might start his own business. He might do a million other things I can't possibly know now. 

Whatever he does, my greatest wish is that he is happy.

Six.

My heart feels like it’s being squeezed like a sponge. It hurts for the kids and the families and the teachers and the town. 

And as I look at the angel on top of the tree -- an imperfect angel made by the hands of a 6-year-old -- I’m reminded that in the midst of all of this horror, there is hope and love and, yes, maybe some day peace.