One More Light Goes Out
Linkin Park released a song in 2017 called "One More Light." This song asks: "Who cares if one more light goes out?" Who cares about that one light, "In the sky full of a million stars [. . .]", who cares if "it flickers?" What a huge, heavy question to ask in a song as short as this! The answer given – waiting quietly at the end of each chorus – is "Well, I do."
Listen. That quiet answer is not enough.
Your being holds weight in this world. Your precious light would be sorely missed. Your life has a purpose. A quiet "I care" at the end of your life is not nearly loud enough for you to hear, so let me yell. Let me scream it from space. Let me call from the mountaintops. Let me march over the fields and swim through the sea to tell you that you weren't dropped into existence and left there. Instead, you were knit together, formed, woven into being. Work was put into the making of you, and it wasn't an accident or an experiment. You were made with a purpose. You were created with full knowledge of who you were, are, and will be, down to the very thoughts in your mind before you thought them. You are wanted and you are loved by the One who knew everything about you even before the foundation of the universe. He held a purpose for you from the beginning. Here is how I know:
Psalm 139:1-4
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
Psalm 139: 13-16
13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
- The Holy Bible, ESV
Today, I raise my voice so you will hear me – you need to know.
On Thursday evening, after the second day of school for the '25-'26 school year, our school community lost a precious member from their ranks. He was just 14 years old, and he made a decision that rocked our worlds.
This sweet boy was wanted and loved by his family, his friends, and by the One who knew everything about him, even before the foundation of the universe. Work was put into the making of him, and he wasn't an accident or an experiment. He had a purpose. He was knit together, formed, and woven into being. His life held weight in this world. His precious light is and will be sorely missed.
Did he know?
Listen. One more light went out. I care. We care. The God of the UNIVERSE cares. You have a purpose. You are wanted. "In the sky full of a million stars [. . .]" You are loved. You are seen. You are known.
