Amazing Grace. . .

I don’t know about you, but I seem stuck this week. I somehow can’t find the words to express what I’m feeling about the horror that we have all been focused on since last Friday when an entire classroom of first graders and six teachers and staff members of Sandy Hook Elementary School were unbelievably murdered by an insane young man. As we watched nonstop TV coverage and listened to every last detail, I found it reminiscent of the weekend in 1963 when we all sat around our black and white TV sets, stunned by the assassination of President Kennedy. I find myself still horrified, but no longer shocked. What’s wrong with this picture??

There was an immediate outpouring of national grief over the senseless killing of these babies. Facebook postings have been constant. And, somehow, the sweet pictures of Jesus holding the little child, and the picture of the teacher holding a book as she reads to 20 little ones in Heaven, and the poems about the joy they are finding in the arms of Jesus now are not comforting me. Some things just are so evil, we cannot comprehend how any good can come from them...

This is the time when people either rush in with words of “comfort” or stand back, not knowing what to say. And frankly, I think the latter is sometimes more prudent. Christian author, Lysa TerKeurst, posted this morning that this is really just a time to fill with prayer.[ click here to read ]

None of us can imagine what these parents are feeling. We can’t imagine how we would be able to get through the loss of a child. Well, a very wise woman, who had lost a three-year-old daughter, once told me that God does not give us grace to go through things in our imagination - He gives it to us when we NEED it. That’s why is is so amazing.

So, rather than try to give annoying pat answers, I’m taking Lysa’s approach and I’m going to try to fill the gaps for these parents with prayer. Prayer that God’s grace and comfort will be supernaturally present for these grieving families and for the entire community of Newtown, which is reeling. I’m leaning on His sovereignty for comfort, and for His promises to one day make things right and to wipe away every tear. Our God is good even when HORRIBLE evil happens. He is just and He is able. Able to comfort and able to redeem.

May we not forget these families when the media have packed up their trucks and left the scene. May we become people who consistently remember to pray, not only for these families, but for those we know who have lost loved ones. For all those mommies who have stood over the graves of their babies. We don’t know the answers, but we know the One who IS the answer. Work now, dear Father, to bring comfort and an abundance of grace to strengthen and encourage these families. Blessed are those who mourn, for they WILL be comforted. Thank you, LORD.