I just couldn’t believe it had been 10 years since the tragedy that took place on the campus of Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado.  That’s what I was thinking when I was trying to decide which book from Thomas Nelson Publishing I wanted to review.  I found Rachel’s Tears, the tenth Anniversary edition. The tragedy at Columbine was an event that had a huge impact on how I was raising my children.  So I could not pass up the opportunity to read this amazing book written by Beth Nimmo and Darrell Scott, the parents of an “ordinary teen who died with extraordinary faith.”

Rachel Joy Scott was a regular teenage girl with a heart committed to following and serving her Savior,  Jesus Christ. Reading about Rachel Joy Scott from the perspective of her parents was a heart wrenching experience.  As a parent to five children, I can not imagine the depths of despair that the parents of the twelve  slain students must have felt.  But as more and more of Rachel’s journal entries are revealed while reading,  I came to understand why her parents have turned her life into an example that others should follow. Rachel’s journal entries reveal a deep, personal relationship with the Lord that I have never seen in a grown adult raised in a religious home, let alone a young teenage girl.

The first half of the book takes you through her life before the tragedy and walks you through the day of the deadly massacre of thirteen people by two misguided teenage boys.  Accounts from kids at the school, including her brother Craig, who lived through the day and stared into the eyes of the killers as they shot and killed two friends on either side of him,  form a picture of what happened in Columbine High School that day. You’ll also read of the fear her parents felt as they anxiously waited at the library and then later at a nearby elementary school, watching buses full of students being brought from Columbine to their worried families.  Rachel never showed up.

But more than anything else, this is a book about a simple life lived by a young girl.  A girl who shared her unwavering faith with everyone simply by living a positive, uplifting life.  By sharing the light within her. By accepting everyone without judgement.  A girl who not only gave her life for her Savior  on that terrible day in April of 1999, but also for the many people she befriended and accepted for many years before her death.

I recommend this book for anyone who wants to see how living a life of  faith with a loving heart can bring about an inner peace and light for everyone to see.  Rachel Joy Scott lived a life centered around her God and it showed.

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