Ten YEARS Later, Christina Grimmie Still Shines Brightly

Ten years ago, Christina Grimmie was unexpectedly called home to be with the Lord. 

She was only 22 years old on the night of June 10, 2016, when she was gunned down by a deranged man during a meet-and-greet after her concert in Orlando, Florida. Her final gesture in this world was to open her arms to welcome this person she didn't know as he approached her from the line. He shot her three times in the head and chest at point blank range before shooting himself.

What an incomprehensible tragedy! We miss her so much. Yet the light of her witness has remained with us and grown stronger over the past decade, even as the world has grown more violent, chaotic, confused, and alienating.

And today, when we worry about whether new technologies might overwhelm our humanity, Christina Grimmie continues to show us the way forward. 

Christina was a pioneering YouTuber who shared her astonishing musical talents and herself, offering love and gratitude to people all over the world, not only through social media but also in and after her concerts. With faith in the One who LOVED her, she found the courage to communicate her love, to use technology and her "celebrity statue" to encounter human persons, to build a "communion of persons," to love unconditionally. 

She knew that love is always a risk. Life is a risk. Being human is a risk. Using new technologies to connect with people is a risk. Christina did not shy away from that risk. Love moved her forward to make music and connect with people, to "risk herself" every day.  And she touched the hearts of vast numbers of people because she was so full of life, so real, so rich with that magnificent humanity that the Lord gave her.

This is why we remember and honor Christina Grimmie today.

In February of 2014, people all over the USA watched and heard on national television Christina Grimmie’s astonishing, jaw-dropping, “four-chair-turning” blind audition for Season 6 of The Voice. (It is frequently ranked among the greatest auditions in the history of this talent contest show or other similar shows.) Shortly after the program aired, she posted the accompanying text on Twitter. At other times she also expressed her intention to live everything in her life for Jesus Christ, “for His glory.” Christina was never “preachy” — rather, she expressed simply and when the occasion presented itself her determined and persistent desire to live her whole young, enthusiastic, funny, musically amazing, great-hearted, and very human life “for Him.”