Reading about Ryland Ward, the five-year-old boy who survived being shot four times and watching his mother and sister cut down in front of him, there are mixed feelings. There are feelings of elation because in all the blood and horror, here is a survivor, a child, who lived. But there is also the surety that Ryland will always bear scars, not just from his physical injuries, but from seeing what he saw, and losing his loved ones in a horrific and shocking massacre.

Here’s hoping Ryland gets the help he needs to grow up strong and proud, to understand there’s a reason he survived, and that he will use the gift of life to do good wherever he goes. May the family find comfort in his survival and that of his 9 year-old sister. It will take many long years to heal.