“Is there comfort when there are no answers to life’s tragedies and losses? Lifting Our Eyes answers that question with a resounding,‘Yes!’ ”

—Don Piper, Author of 90 Minutes in Heaven and Heaven Is Real

No words describe the horror that engulfed the sprawling Virginia Tech campus in the aftermath of Seung-Hui Cho’s brutal rampage that killed twenty-seven students and five professors and ripped bullet holes into roughly twenty-five others. On April 16, 2007, few in the classroom killing fields escaped without injury.

Lifting Our Eyes, by seasoned journalist Beth Lueders, features gripping and tender accounts of first-hand witnesses to the shootings and real-life reflections of  those who mourn. The legacy of one slain student in particular, Lauren McCain, challenges us all to live life with deep faith, passion and joy.

The book poignantly shares God’s unfolding story through the terrifying events at Virginia Tech. The local community members who open their homes and arms to weary students needing a respite. The pastors and counselors who listen and console. The friends who hold each other through their agonizing wails.

God’s story did not end with the last gunshot in Norris Hall. Although America’s worst gunfire massacre is over, God’s story of healing and hope is just beginning. Lifting Our Eyes beautifully portrays how the Creator continues to weave  grace throughout the tattered shreds of evil inflicted on the Blacksburg campus.

The palmist wrote centuries ago, “I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; from where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth (Psalm 121:1-2, NASB). May this book encourage you to lift your eyes from your own unsettling times of fear, loss, and hurt to the gracious and glorious Maker of heaven and earth, our ever-present Helper.