Finding Hope Amid Unspeakable Sadness
America has once again experienced a tragedy, one from which we recoil in horror as we think of our most innocent citizens being slaughtered in a senseless rampage by a very angry, disturbed young man. There is much yet to be learned about this terrible event, and some answers about “Why?” may not be known this side of heaven. The awful reality of the magnitude of their loss is beginning to be felt by those most directly involved: parents; grandparents; brothers and sisters; aunts, uncles and cousins; spouses; fiances; friends; co-workers; and the entire population of Newtown, Connecticut, and the United States. As parents, there is no worse tragedy than having to bury a child. That scenario is one which no one ever wants to face. As we have personally watched this happen to friends and family, the pain is crushing and impossible to bear in their human strength. Turning to their Creator for the comfort only He can give has helped many who allow Him into their places of grief. Oddly enough, the words of a Christmas carol, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, are somehow appropriate here: “And in despair I bowed my head: ‘There is no peace on earth’, I said, ‘For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.'” “‘ Yet pealed the bells more loud and deep: ‘God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; the wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men.'”
I was reminded, too, of a tragic event connected to the birth of Jesus the Savior. Because of his jealousy and fear for his own power, Herod had all the baby boys in the land two years old and under killed, pulled savagely from their mothers and fathers to be murdered in cold blood. A prophecy from Jeremiah was fulfilled:”A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more” (Matthew 2:18).
I do not presume to understand the ways of God, nor would I ever claim that I could do so. When God chooses to act, or not to act, I trust His loving heart. God is sovereign, and what He does in the affairs of man is part of a plan that has been set in motion thousands of years before now. His heart cries with those who grieve, and we must remember that death was NEVER part of His plan for mankind. It was only as man chose to disobey Him and sin that death entered into His creation. While on earth, Jesus wept with those who mourned. And God, too, watched His Son die as the final punishment for the sins of all human beings. Jesus died for all so that we might not have to experience eternal separation from God, for everyone who accepts this as the final payment for their sins will not see eternal death. Physical death is a reality for all of us, for our earthly bodies were not meant to last for eternity. But how very tragic if we reject the salvation Jesus offers and suffer eternal separation from our loving and holy God.
I believe that each of those precious children who were cruelly torn from their families last week entered the presence of Jesus, Who said, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of heaven.” He was waiting for them on the other side, and His was the first face they saw.
Faith Through the Journey 