a heavy heart this Monday morning

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Romans 12:12

I didn't plan on writing anything about the events from Friday.  There really aren't words.  But in one way, it doesn't feel right to just go on with our normal Monday while so many are hurting in another part of the country.

Parents all over the country dropped a piece of their heart off at school this morning. And I was one of them.  Mine are completely shielded from the events of Friday. But I'm sure some day they will know about it. It will be forever etched in my mind...the year I sent my first to Kindergarten, other children her same age left for school one day and never came home.

I know that there are so many in our world who question God in these times. It's so hard to understand, and I think God knows it's hard for us to understand and doesn't expect us to. But He promises us many things...like his unmeasureable love, his goodness beyond our understanding, and he promises us that we will be rescued. And events like Friday make believers everywhere long even more to be rescued from the evil and pain in this world.
 

I read Luke 2 (from the Jesus Storybook Bible) to my Sunday School class yesterday and one line hit me hard..
"And the darker the night got, the brighter the star would shine"
That bright start above the stable means the same now as it did over 2000 years ago. Jesus is the Light of the World
 

I read this article from Ann Voskamp...she does a good job of helping to explain the sin in this world and where God is when things like the tragedy in Newtown, CT. happen. The comparison of sin and Satan, to a serpent with his head smashed but still lashing and destroying much in it's path...is the perfect comparison.  You know God's already won, right?   Satan's head has already been smashed.  It was smashed that first Christmas, when God's own son was born in a stable.
 And then smashed again when He hung on that tree and then arose 3 days later.  And Satan and all evil that he causes will realize full well that his head is gone when the Lord comes again.  He will lash around angrily until then.  Trying to destroy all in his path. But the victory has already been won.  Have you read the back of the book?  We WIN! (do you know that song?  I know it may be waaaay too southern gospel for some of you, and it's pretty old school, but it's one of my favorites) 

 

I found great comfort in this song this morning, and had to replay it several times.

 

 

 

"You alone can rescue,

You alone can save

You alone can lift us from the grave.

You came down to find us,

led us out of death.

To you alone belongs the highest praise."

 



Without the Christ Child, and that first Christmas, and the story that follows...there is no hope after tragedies like Friday.

 

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

The news is not encouraging in anyway...but these articles definitely are...
David Platt...The Gospel and Newtown
Max Lucado...A Christmas Prayer