All You Need is [Christ's] Love

I have a part time job as a nanny.
Two days a week I put a name card on my dash, sit in two different car lines, & shuttle the kiddos between practices & tutoring.
Today, Grayson's friend Andy is over to do homework.
Only, the homework is sitting on the counter & the boys are huddled around the pencil sharpener seeing how small they can get a pencil & still use it.
I'm in the kitchen making coffee & this is the conversation we are having:

"My grandma lived to be 92!" -Grayson
"That's pretty old," I chimed in "but my great-grandmother lived to be 105!"
"Wow!" exclaims Grayson, "She was like the oldest lady in the whole world!" I think I've trumped the boys, but Andy is sitting on the stool smirking.
"My great aunt was 110!" he states triumphantly.
I congratulate Andy & tell him he definitely wins the lifespan conversation.

But then the conversation turns.
I know where this is headed & am nervous for what's going to happen next.

"Yeh I win!" says Andy, "But I lose too cause my Dad died when he was only 33."
I'm not sure what to say, aware of his situation but unable to find the words to tell him how sorry I am. I finally muster up a, "Yeh, that's too young. 110 is much better."
"My dad is 47 and he's still alive!" says Grayson & I hold my breath. Kids say exactly what they're thinking & sometimes it's not too sensitive.
"Yeh well your dad wasn't murdered." Andy isn't emotional about this. He's still examining his newly sharpened, teeny pencil while talking to us. He finishes up his thought with, "I hate murderers. I wish I could shoot them all."

Something distracts the boys & before I can tear up or give Andy a hug, I'm telling them to stop putting batteries in their mouths.

Andy's family suffered a tragic loss this summer.
While working at their family pharmacy, his dad was murdered by a pill seeking addict in need of his next fix.
Gunned down in the middle of the day.
I knew this about the family across the street but neither Andy or his brother had talked about it while over at the house yet.
I knew it would come up eventually, but nothing could have prepared me to hear an 8 year old utter the words, "Well your dad wasn't murdered."

Even writing this now my eyes are stinging with tears.
Precious little kids that can't really comprehend what's happened to them or what a massive impact their Father's death will have in shaping the rest of their lives.
It makes my own heart hurt for them.
It makes me ask God why.
It makes me grateful that I still have my dad. A rocky relationship is better than no relationship.
It makes me pray, hard, that Andy will find & treasure a relationship with his heavenly Father.

The Beatle's were so close!
They almost hit the nail on the head, but they left out one important aspect in their famous chorus "All You Need is Love".
Because Love itself does nothing if it isn't of Christ.
All we need is Christ's love.
That is the only love that heals the kind of gaping, raw wounds that are left behind when a kid's dad dies in the middle of life.

Christ, come & rescue us.