Did they know?

I'm writing this because I, like so many others tonight, am shaken and sad. I shed tears tonight for a man I've never met. Although I didn't know Tim Bosma, I know people that did. It seems so innocent, the selling of a truck. One doesn't have to know a man to grieve his wrongful death and the impact that it will have on his friends and family.

Did they know?
Did those men who responded to that advertisement and took that truck with Tim for a drive know that because of their actions, a little girl would never be tucked into bed by her daddy again?
Did they know that every time she had a dance recital or birthday party or graduation, the celebration would be marred by the fact that someone so important was missing? All for what? A truck?
When they carried out their plan, did they know that in twenty years when his little girl walks down the aisle - on the day that should not contain an iota of sadness - a tear will be shed because her father isn't there to walk that aisle with her?
Did they think of that?
Did they know that every night, a woman will go to bed, not with the arms of her husband around her, but the aching pains of loneliness instead?
Did they know that every time she needs to make a parenting decision, attend an event, celebrate a birth, or mourn a death, she will grieve the loss of her husband all over again?
Were they aware that Tim's presence will be missed by a wife and a daughter every day for the rest of their lives?
Did they know?

Did they know that an entire country would rally around Tim's wife and daughter?
Did they know that relatives, friends, and strangers alike would volunteer their time and their love to help this hurting family?
Did they know that for all the tears shed - by family, by friends, and by complete strangers - God kept count?
Did they know that those tears would be matched by immeasurable amounts of prayer, of people coming before the Father of All to ask Him to hold and heal and comfort?
Did they know that no matter how evil their motives and how black their minds, the loving grace of God shines through, even in this?
Did they know that the wife and daughter have a God who promises to comfort the widow and to be a Father to the Fatherless?
Did these men know that this family's broken hearts are held by a God whose heart is breaking too?

Tonight, I am sad; in my sadness, I am thankful that "we do not mourn as those who do not have hope."