Special Note: Growing up in Texas, Thanksgiving has always meant the special rivalry between the Aggies and the Longhorns. This year, things are different. Bitterness and rivalry have given away to shared tears, shared prayers, and shared grief. Rivalries in football are meaningless in the face of such loss. Monday night, 10,000 students from both universities gathered together and shared their school songs, thoughts, prayers, and concerns for the families and students whose lives have been shattered by this tragedy. Our hearts also go out them. A friend and accomplished poet passed on this special remembrance for HEARTLIGHT to share with these families and Texas A & M University. We have also repeatedly prayed that our Father will use Aggies for Christ, a special group some of our university students serve in, to be his presence to those in pain.

They built a fire on dark Kyle field
To spiral towards the Texas sky-
But somewhere in the upward way
It fell and twelve would die.

How could this good which they’d have done-
To 90 years tradition keep-
This time collapse and turn the joy
To sounds of loss so deep.

The wood which fell at A & M
Had sure, an awful cost,
But had not One before them gone
Then all who feel were lost.

But Hallelujah! Though life wounds
And each must share the pain-
We yet believe, when we must leave,
We rise to fly again.

So now the chapels ring with song
To wing them heaven bound
With tearful wishes, all the best-
May welcome arms be found.

So from the rubble- everyday-
Think not the Phoenix lost-
But also, as you count the dead,
Be mindful of the cost.