Christ

I've mentioned the death of Maria Sue Chapman - 5 year old daughter of Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman. Steven is one of my favorite Christian music artists.

I have watched the various interviews and commented about them in this blog - and I've just finished listening to the 3 days of interviews from Dr. James Dobson's interview with Steven on Dr. Dobson's Focus on the Family website.

I'm so grateful for the Internet - for it's ability to connect people and to share information. The interviews done with the Chapman family on Larry King Live and Good Morning America were good interviews - but in the final segment of the Focus on the Family interviews, Dr. Dobson reveals that one of those shows interviewed and filmed the family for over 5 hours - and edited out every single mention of Christ from the broadcast. Isn't that amazing? Main stream television won't allow the name Christ to be broadcast. Why is that? Why?

Watching those two TV interviews was very hard for me - and now I know why. Steven and his family seemed so uncomfortable - and I had assumed it was grief, and loss, and the sheer magnitude of sharing their family's tragedy over and over. But it turns out it was probably more related to not being heard. They are quite possibly the most faith-filled family I have ever 'met' - Christ is their focus. Their faith sustains them and comforts them - and their belief that they will be with Maria again is what is getting them through this time. And yet, no secular, main-stream show - who sought out interviews with them - would allow the name of Christ to be included in the broadcast.

So I'm so grateful for the Focus on the Family segments which offer insight into how they SCC family are REALLY handling the grief - they are walking with Christ, every single minute of every single day. And the ability to speak openly and candidly with another person of faith (Dr. Dobson) really helped put those other interviews in context. No wonder they seemed uncomfortable - they were! How can you interview a family who is expressing their faith and how their faith is seeing them through the loss of their daughter AND NOT INCLUDE THE NAME OF OUR SAVIOR, CHRIST in the segment?

And, Mary Beth got a tattoo on her wrist - it's a six petal flower with the word 'SEE' and a butterfly - just like the picture Maria drew the day she died. I had been thinking 'if I were getting a tattoo, I think I'd get that six-petal flower, with one petal colored in and the word 'SEE'. And Mary Beth did - it was shown in the 2nd People Magazine article. Which I'm pretty sure also never mentioned Christ. I'll have to go look, now.