Every now and again there’s a flurry of news regarding the remaining van Breda family members and then something else makes front page news which overrides it.
There have not yet been any arrests in the multiple family murder that rocked South Africa on the morning of 27th January 2015, but this last week news has it that Marli visited her school. According to the report, it’s part of her reintegration back into what will be her new normal life. She attends Somerset College, in Somerset West and is soon expected to return to continue with her education.
The headmistress of Somerset College is Meg Fargher. Speaking to News24, she said visits to the school have been recommended. I think it will be easier. Now that Marli’s classmates have seen her and how good she looks, it will make the transition back to school, when she does return, a whole lot easier.
While Marli is seeing her school friends, she has not been seeing he only surviving family member Henri. Debbie Wybrow is Marli’s legal representative, but like many others in the van Breda inner circle, she is keeping quiet about why the siblings have not yet met. We are not quite sure where Henri is or what his future holds for him. He doesn’t seem to be surrounded by supportive people or being assisted in finding his niche back into normal life. Perhaps he is and we just don’t know about it.
The investigation into this case must run its course. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there is more to all this than meets the eye. It’s great to be seeing Marli getting better. She still has retrograde amnesia and can remember nothing about the attack. It seems she has not been able to help the police with their investigation. I have had a couple of comments come through on my blog in defence of Henri. They were quite vociferous and underscored with Biblical references …here’s one of them.
I’m not sure what to make of it! I have no idea of who posted it. While it comes with an email address, it comes anonymously.
Whatever the cause, it is unspeakably tragic.
1 Corinthians 13;12
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
It’s not about here or now.
God bless.
In His Grip,
Helga
I always enjoy how you place the events of everyday life (from food to the van Breda tragedy) into a Biblical context. After today’s post (actually the anonymous email) I think I will throw my two cents (pence, pesos…) in.
For much of my adult life I was a committed Calvinist as I’m sure anonymous is. Then I had an opportunity to study with John Warwick Montgomery and learned a lesson which fundamentally changed the way I think. “Facts”, said Montgomery, “are more important than systems”. Whenever we try to make sense of our observations (be it the teaching of the Bible, human relationships, or diet) we must protect the facts and NOT use a system (Calvinism, Arminianism, etc) to prune inconvenient and uncomfortable facts. If all the facts don’f fit, too bad for the system, stay true to the facts.
Relative to anonymous’s email above, it became clear to me some time ago that, yes, the Scripture does clearly teach that God is sovereign but it also emphatically teaches that he is good. Furthermore, the Scripture teaches that each one of us makes decisions for which we will be held responsible. In the van Breda instance, someone made a truly evil decision, but God, being perfectly good, was not the author of that evil. Yet in all of this God is sovereign – nothing is spinning out of control.
Do I have a system that makes perfect sense of these facts? No. Does it offend my personal desire for “control”, i.e. to have everything make perfect sense? Yes. But the facts have priority and I’ll patiently wait for the Lord to reveal His system to me when I someday join the van Bredas.
Well said!! Thanks for that. God bless. H