'Jacob's Hope': Porch Lights Burn All Weekend in Memory of Minnesota Boy Abducted in 1989; Remains Just Found

The Wired Word for the Week of September 11, 2016

In the News

Thousands of people across Minnesota and elsewhere in the nation left their porch lights burning throughout the Labor Day weekend in response to the news that the remains of Jacob Wetterling had been found. Wetterling was 11 years old when he was snatched by a masked abductor from a country road not far from his home in St. Joseph, Minnesota, on October 22, 1989.

"Our hearts are broken," Jacob's mother Patty Wetterling said in response to the news. "We have no words."

On Sunday evening, October 22, 1989, Jacob, his younger brother Trevor, age 10, and a friend, 11-year-old Aaron Larson, were cycling home from a store where they had gone to rent a video, when a masked gunman stopped them, ordered them to throw their bikes into a ditch and lie face down on the ground. He eventually released Trevor and Aaron, telling them to run toward a nearby wooded area and not look back or they would be shot. This was the last time Jacob was ever seen.

Over the years, on the anniversary of his disappearance, many people left their porch lights on in a show of support for his family. This Labor Day weekend, thousands of porch lights have been left on once again.

When the news broke that Jacob's remains had been found, someone started a Facebook event called "Lights on for Jacob Wetterling," and soon 15,000 people had pledged to participate. Many posted pictures of their lit porch lights. Minnesota state Rep. Peggy Flanagan tweeted a picture and wrote, "Almost every light on my street is on tonight. We are Jacob's hope."

Jacob's mother responded via Twitter, saying, "Our family is drawing strength from all your love & support. We're struggling for words at this time. Thank you for your hope."

Jacob's abduction caused an extended investigation, with some 50,000 leads pursued. It also led to the establishment of a national sex offender registry in 1994.

Authorities were led to the location of the body by Danny Heinrich, 53, who was long a suspect in the case. He was in federal custody on child pornography charges and reportedly, some deal on those charges required him to reveal the location of Jacob's body. On Tuesday, Heinrich admitted in federal court to abducting, sexually abusing and killing Jacob.

TWW editorial team member Micah Holland, who is about the same age as Jacob would be and was raised in Minnesota, remembers how the news of Jacob's disappearance changed his childhood.

"Before his abduction, I was able to ride my bike all over the place and would not come home until the street lights would come on," Holland said. "My brother and I had a ton of freedom."

But after Jacob's abduction, said Holland, things changed. "We began having to check in with my folks, allowing them to know where we were at all times. We had many conversations about interacting with strangers, and there was just a different feel about leaving the house. Friends of mine would share the same mindset. I am not sure about the rest of the country, but his abduction changed much in Minnesota. We were less free, but more safe."

In 1990, Jacob's parents founded an advocacy group dedicated to child safety, now known as the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center. A statement on the center's website, posted after the news of the finding of Jacob's remains broke, reads:

We are in deep grief. We didn't want Jacob's story to end this way. In this moment of pain and shock, we go back to the beginning. The Wetterlings had a choice to walk into bitterness and anger or to walk into a light of what could be, a light of hope. Their choice changed the world.
This light has been burning for close to 27 years. The spark began in the moments after the abduction of Jacob Wetterling, when his family decided that light is stronger than darkness. They lit the flame that became Jacob's Hope. All of Central Minnesota flocked to and fanned the flame, hoping for answers. The light spread statewide, nationally and globally as hearts connected to the 11-year-old boy who liked to play goalie for his hockey team, wanted to be a football player, played the trombone, and loved the times he spent with his sisters, brother and parents.
Today, we gather around the same flame. The flame that has become more than the hope for one as it led the way home for thousands of others. It's the light that illuminates a world that Jacob believed in, where things are fair and just.
Our hearts are heavy, but we are being held up by all of the people who have been a part of making Jacob's Hope a light that will never be extinguished. It shines on in a different way. We are, and we will continue to be, Jacob's Hope.
Jacob, you are loved.

In 2010, the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center merged with the National Child Protection Training Center. According to their joint website, "The move is an effort to combine the groups' resources and strengthen their common efforts to ensure every child grows up in a healthy, safe world free from abuse, exploitation and abduction."

More on this story can be found at these links:

Jacob Wetterling's Remains Found on Paynesville-Area Farm. Star TribuneJacob Wetterling: Lights Left on in Memory of Boy Who Was Abducted. CNNJacob Wetterling Resource Center
Confession in Boy's Death Solves Case That Haunted Minnesota AP

The Big Questions

1. When used metaphorically, light and darkness often contrast good and evil. We live in a world where darkness has not been able to extinguish light, but neither has light been able to expel darkness. What, if anything, makes you believe that light will win?

2. What does it mean that God is light? What does it mean to walk in the light?

3. How is "light" related to "hope"?

4. What, if anything, do you personally do to fight darkness?

5. What deliberate measures does your church take to ensure that all children in its ministries are safe without stifling their learning and development? What are some of the discussions your congregation has had with parents on this topic?

Confronting the News With Scripture and HopeHere are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:

John 8:12… I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.(For context, read 8:12-20.)
Matthew 5:14-16
You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. (No context necessary.)

We have juxtaposed these two statements from Jesus because together, they include an important assertion about his followers. In the John verse, Jesus says that he is the light of the world, but in Matthew, Jesus saidwe, his disciples, are. That should bring us up short! But we can understand that in labeling his followers, including us, "the light of the world," he wasn't saying that we generate that light ourselves, but rather that we carry the light that he is and take it where it can be seen.

Thus, in this passage, Jesus tells us to be useful carriers of the light that he is.

Questions: Where have you been able to bring this kind of light? Are you more likely to curse the darkness or light a light? Why?
Many Minnesotans turned on their porch light in sympathy with Jacob's grieving family. When have you figuratively "turned on a porch light" to aid someone who is walking in darkness? When has someone shown solidarity with you in your time of struggle?

John 1:4-5
… in [Christ] was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (For context, read 1:1-14.)

John said the light shines in the darkness. In that sense, the light of Christ in our day is like a lamp in a dark room, where it illuminates the subject but does not dispel the darkness in every corner. The light of Christ does not eradicate all darkness, at least not yet. But neither can the darkness overcome the light.

In the biblical view, neither darkness nor light is a passive thing. Darkness, as John's gospel pictures it, is not just the absence of light. Rather it is actively hostile to the light of God.

TWW editorial team member Frank Ramirez suggests the following paraphrase of John 1:5: "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness doesn't get it." There's a sense that those who choose darkness don't get why we choose light. While Satan is sometimes used to personify darkness, Christianity sees darkness not so much as an outside force as a drive within us that urges us to disregard God.

Questions: According to John in the context verses, who or what fails to comprehend the light? (See vv. 5, 10, 11.) Who received the light? (See vv. 12-13.) Does it sometimes seem as if those who choose extreme darkness are not capable of receiving God's light? How do you think God reaches people who seem beyond our understanding or help?
Jacob's abduction led to the establishment of a national sex offender registry in 1994. Might this be considered an example of some form of "light" shining forth from the darkness? Explain your answer.

Ephesians 4:18
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. (For context, read 4:17-24.)

In context, the "they" in this verse are pagan unbelievers, but with its "darkened in their understanding," "alienated from the life of God" and "hardness of heart" vocabulary, it also can be applied to the perpetrator of this awful crime upon Jacob Wetterling. The perpetrator needs the light of God as do all of those who struggle with dark thoughts.

Authorities have said that although Danny Heinrich has confessed to abducting, abusing and murdering Jacob, he has expressed no remorse.

There is evidence, by the way, that the perpetrator himself was sexually abused as a child, which reminds us of the long tail dark acts can have.

Questions: What do you think Jesus would say to the man who killed Jacob? Why?

1 Thessalonians 4:13
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. (For context, read 4:13-18.)

Hope seems a difficult word to use in the context of the finding of Jacob Wetterling's remains. His family had been clinging to a hope that somehow, he might still be found alive. There had even been pictures of him appropriately aged to show what he might look like at an older age, in hopes of someone recognizing him. "We didn't want Jacob's story to end this way," says the statement on the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center website, and we're certain that no one of good will wanted that ending.

But the apostle Paul wrote the statement above to address the concerns of his fellow Christians who were expecting Jesus' return in their lifetime and wondered what would happen to those Christians who had already died. Would they be left out when Jesus returned?

Paul assured his readers that the deceased Christians were by no means kept from being with Christ for eternity, and thus Paul urged his readers not to "grieve asothers do who have no hope." (Hope here seems to include all that Christ promised.)

Understand that Paul was not chiding the Thessalonians for grieving. They were as sorrowful as anyone else when their friends and loved ones died, and Paul saw nothing wrong with that. But he was not simply saying what we sometimes hear when a loved one dies, that they are "in a better place." Rather his point was that death is not only a force against us, but against God, and God is already moving against death and will be victorious. Part of God's action against death took place at the resurrection of Jesus, and the rest will take place at the general resurrection of all the faithful when the kingdom of God fully dawns.

Thus, Paul was not telling the Thessalonians not to grieve or to be any less sad when their loved ones died, but he was saying that they should understand what had happened within a different frame of reference. Without the gospel, we view death as an end. With the gospel, we view it as a passage to the future God has prepared.

Questions: Admittedly, this is a different kind of hope from that which included the desire for Jacob to found alive, but how might it help those who are grieving his loss now? How does this kind of hope help you, if at all, regarding your loved ones who have died?

1 Corinthians 13:13
And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three .... (For context, read 13:1-13.)

Biblically speaking, hope, along with faith and love, make up the "big three" of Christianity. They are the things that the apostle Paul said, in 1 Corinthians 13, remain, that have enduring quality, when all else fails. "And now faith, hope, and love abide," is how he put it, and he meant that when we look for the qualities that are distilled from the experience of the believing life together, these three things are the solid footing on which we stand: faith, hope and love -- even if seen only darkly as through a distorting glass.

But when the Bible speaks of hope, it is not talking about any ole thing we wish will come to pass. In fact, the Bible is quite explicit that some hope is not solid ground, but in fact is sinking sand. The Bible is clear that hope based on the accumulation of goods or wealth, or based on position or anything else that is not God is false hope. Thus, those who place their hope in such inadequate things are likely to be disappointed.

The hope anchored in God is not some sort of wishful thinking that those of us with strong enough gumption muster up from some inner core. No, rather it is an ultimate belief that when all else fails, when every other support gives way -- even when darkness is intruding deeply into our lives -- we remain in God's hands.

Questions:Imagine yourself in the place of Jacob's family. In what ways might the porch lights being on have helped you in your grief? If you were to write a letter to the grieving Wetterling family, what would you say to them? How would you phrase it?

For Further Discussion

1. Respond to this, from TWW team member Mary Sells: "As Christians, the greatest hope we have is for eternal life with Jesus, the light of the world. Do we realize how much we need the light? In this world I am so aware of the effect of light on me. Now, in the last days of summer in Florida, we have many overcast days or rainy days where the time of daylight is so precious. How much easier it is to awaken to bright sunshine, than to the murkiness. And isn't that how our spirit responds to God! When we let the world and its lack of hope bring us low we feel the darkness inside; yet one beam of hope from God lights our gratitude and fortitude. I'm sure the family of this murdered young boy needed the light, to believe in the light for these many years. We can only pray that God's light will continue to sustain them."

2. Read and respond as a group to the statement put out on the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center website (quoted in the "In the News" section above).

3. Discuss this statement: The Bible entertains no thought that darkness is equal in power to God's light. God is the absolute Sovereign who rules over the darkness and the powers of evil.

Responding to the News

Now is a good time to review the measures your church takes to protect the children in its care, to make sure those measures are as thorough as they can be.

This is also an appropriate time to make a donation to a child-safety advocacy organization, such as the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center, or to a group with similar aims within your denomination.

Prayer

O God, be present with comfort with the family of Jacob Wetterling. Help us to do all we can to protect the children you have entrusted to us. Come with light into the darkness of that world. In Jesus' name. Amen.