Life is fragile. If this weekend can teach us anything, it can teach us that life is fragile.

For the past 12 days the nation has been on its toes, awaiting the fate of two men buried in a wire cage 1 kilometre underground.

On Friday, little Sophie Delezio was being pushed in her stroller across a pedestrian crossing when she was run down by a motorist—a heartbreaking sequel for a little girl who had already lost a hand, an ear, both feet, and suffered burns to 85 per cent of her body after a car crashed into her child-care centre back in 2003.

And then this afternoon, veteran Channel 9 reporter Richard Carleton collapsed at a Beaconsfield news conference. I was watching that live cross and heard Carleton ask what would be his final question. Just a minute later he apparently collapsed and was pronounced dead of a suspected heart-attack.

It’s been a weekend of irony: Richard Carleton rushes to Tasmania to report on a story, and ends up becoming a headline.

It’s been a weekend of drama: Todd Russell and Brant Webb remain just an arm-stretch away from freedom, separated by a mass of rock that’s proving almost impossible to move.

And it’s been a weekend of questions: Ron Delezio and Carolyn Martin wonder just what kind of world this is that hits their already damaged little girl with another bout of tragedy and pain. “I don’t know if it’s bad luck,” Ron said last night, “or [whether] I have done something really bad in the past and it’s catching up now… Why should my daughter go through such pain again? Hasn’t she gone through enough?”

Believer and skeptic alike could ask something similar.

But I wonder if this could also be a weekend of awakening: Over the last few days our hopes at Beaconsfield have been raised, lowered, raised again… and our fists have hit the table over Sophie’s tragedy. We’ve been shaken up. And for many, we’ve been moved to pray.

In fact (and I don’t want to over dramatise this), but the nation is praying more than ever.

This afternoon I heard a mainstream talkback host suggest it would be good to take stock of life, and even pray, following the passing of Richard Carleton. Tasmanian churches have been hubs of prayer for our two underground miners. And little Sophie has awakened the prayers of thousands around the nation and the world.

Listen to a few of the hundreds of responses posted for Sophie and her family on the Sydney Morning Herald website:

Dear Sophie & Family.
Our sincere thoughts and prayers are for you always. Some times we wonder why this is happening but at the end of the day there is someone above us always looking at us with care.

Dear Sophie,
My husband and I both prayed for you on Friday night when we heard the news. We are thinking of you constantly and send all of our love and best wishes.

Dear Sophie,
I pray for you little one. I can not even imagine the pain and sadness that overcomes your family once again. You have been a real fighter, and I pray for you and your family to overcome this. Trust in God, for he is an "everlasting help!"

Or what about this one. The writer says:

If I ever doubted God, I don’t now. Sophie, your strength and courage puts me to shame, and should put us all to shame, when we whinge over traffic jams, not having enough money, [or] the job we want… The next time I think life is tough, I will smile and think of a beautiful little girl called Sophie. God Bless.

Our sympathies are with the wife, son and extended family of Richard Carleton and the family of Larry Knight—the third Beaconsfield miner who never made it through. Our thoughts and prayers remain with Todd Russell and Brant Webb, and with a recovering Sophie Delezio.

And maybe this weekend we’ll remember life is fragile, and that God Himself awaits to be heard through our pain.