Evergreen High student searches for hope after Colorado school shooting in song

Just outside Evergreen, Colorado, high school senior Judah Cox finds his voice through music.

"This is how I process a lot of things. I'll just play music. So this was just my backbone," Judah Cox said, "Every day I at least, I kind of sit down and write a song or two."

Before heading to Evergreen High School each day, he spends his mornings in a live music class down the road, which is where he was on Wednesday when he got a call from his mom.

"It hit me that Judah wasn't there yet," said his mother Vivian Cox. "And so I'm calling him and telling him to stay where he was, but I just kept screaming to my younger son, 'Don't hang up. Don't you. Hang up on me!'"

At 12:24 p.m. on Wednesday there was a shooting at Evergreen High School. The shooter injured two classmates and later died from self-inflicted injuries. Both Judah and his brother got home safely, but they were shaken.

"I almost lost my children. And that's not what any parent ever wants to think about. Is their child running for his life? That's just not. That's your worst nightmare come true," Vivian Cox said.

Judah Cox added, "You hear about it all the time on the news, and it's just horrible. But then you're like, well, it's not going to be my school, and then it is, and you can't do anything about it."

So he did the only thing he knew to share his feelings, the only way he knew how, back at his keyboard.

"But as soon as I started writing the lyrics, that's when I really knew that this song was different. And I was just bawling at the piano as I wrote this," Judah Cox.

The song begins saying:

When it happens in your hometown on the streets I grew up on

It hits too close

Judah decided to share the song on social media, and it struck a chord, one line in the song:

Cause I don't believe it's about conclusion

Lord, I pray it's about reunion with you someday

In just days, the song has now been heard around the world and played more than 2 million times.

"To see the impact on 2.5 million people. To have that many people say, 'Hey, me too' ... in so many people that have even said, 'I don't even believe in God, but this song made me cry,'" Vivian Cox said.

"It made a lot of my friends cry, which is hard to hear, but like, also, I think we all needed that," Judah Cox said.

And as Evergreen High School stays closed in the aftermath of the shooting, Judah Cox plans to keep writing and help a healing community find its voice.

"I don't understand why all this has to happen all the time. Like, this isn't how high school is supposed to be," Judah Cox said, "Now that I know that that song has been seen by that many people, it really brings me hope."

"He's taken what I hope are the darkest moments of his life and turned them all around and just reminded us that there is good and there is hope," Vivian Cox said.

Judah Cox says he plans to add some finishing touches to the song and hopefully perform it at upcoming fundraisers that will be held in his community.