Friday, 14, 2012

December fourteenth two thousand and twelve, the day a very broken person walked into a kindergarten room and shot killing twenty seven, eighteen of which were children from the website I read.

Questions flood my mind, why do these things happen, how can someone walk into a kindergarten room and do such things? What kind of motive or intentions were behind this event?

I first head of this shooting around 1 p.m. this afternoon but it wasn't until my kids started walking through the basement doors that my heart started to bleed. Thoughts of that happening in this neighborhood or even having the news delivered that a certain number of my kids had been shot was something I could not handle. My heart bleeds for the many people, whether they are teachers, students, family or friends or everyone in Newtown.

The hurt and devastation that something like this causes is tremendous.  Tragic events such as this has the power to bring a town or community together faster than anything ever can. To provide support for one and another as everyone is affected. This reminds me of a message I once heard on Ecclesiastes 7:2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.

Why would a house of mourning ever be better than a house of rejoicing? Can you ever think of a time you would rather be sad and grieving over being happy and rejoicing. It doesn’t seem to make any sense. Yet in Ecclesiastes the writer is talking about the vanities of live. The fleetingness and how nothing lasts in this life. The writer calls us to something more than what is in the world. To seek something that is of lasting value which of course is a lasting relationship with our Lord and Savior which is the only thing that will give us a lasting reason and purpose in this life.  The writer says that a house of mourning is better than a house of rejoicing, for the reasons that in a place of mourning there is a brokenness were we see our need for a Savior, opposed to a house of rejoicing were we are distracted by our own pleasure and happiness created in something we do on our own, without the need of a Savior to be a part of our lives.

This being said let me bring your attention back to the shooting that occurred in Connecticut this morning.  It is devastating and wrong; something like this should never have or ever should happen. Yet we live in a sinful broken world were wrong things happen. Yet when I see a community come together to cry and support and go through this tragic event together it shows me a glimpse of hope and of understanding this passage. There is so much room for prayer and support from others in times such as these for the people in Newtown and all over the USA. Pray for these people and families especially who have been effected in huge ways. Pray that God would make Himself known and that He would be real in the hearts and lives of His people. That He would comfort and love the hurt and the broken and that through this time of mourning many would come to know and experience His saving power.