Mark Kelly, the husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, closed the National Prayer Breakfast this morning and offered a few words about the Arizona lawmaker's recovery from a gunshot wound.
Kelly told President Obama and the audience at the Washington Hilton that the last month "has been the hardest time of my life."
He said it was natural for anyone to ask in this situation: How? Why was his spouse, an Arizona Democrat, shot in the head on Jan. 8?
"Maybe it was fate," he said he told Giffords the other day. "I hadn't been a big believer in fate until recently. I thought the world just spins and the clock just ticks and things happen for no particular reason."
The FBI has said that Giffords, 40, was the target of a shooting rampage that left six people dead and 13 wounded.
Giffords is now at a rehab center in Houston, where Kelly says "she gets a little better" every day.
He urged the audience -- many of them members of Congress and other Washington officials -- to work together to meet the nation's challenges. "Maybe something good can come from all this," Kelly said.
Kelly ended his remarks with prayers from Giffords' rabbi, Stephanie Aaron of Congregation Chaverim in Tucson. He quoted from the prayer Aaron said when Giffords was shot, saying that God's angels were with the congresswoman and "the presence of the divine" watched over her.
Obama, who spoke about how his Christian faith has deepened while he's been in the White House, began his remarks with a nod to Kelly and Giffords. "We are with them for the long haul and God is with them for the long haul," the president said.
Kelly, a Navy captain and astronaut, kept vigil by his wife's side while she was hospitalized at University Medical Center in Tucson. She is now undergoing therapy and treatment in Houston, where Kelly is based.
He is scheduled to command the space shuttle Endeavour during a mission in April.
USA TODAY's Cathy Grossman has more about Obama's remarks at the Faith & Reason blog. You can watch Obama on the video posted at the top.
By Catalina Camia, USA TODAY
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