26 people are dead today. And yesterday the debate began again, followed by the familiar slogans: “We need stricter gun laws!” “If he didn’t have the gun this wouldn’t happen!” “We need to arm our teachers!” “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” And with each thought, the fire within us is ignited. And I agree, if stricter gun laws would work, then I say pile them off, because as a parent I can’t imagine getting that phone call from my daughter’s school. But Connecticut has strict gun laws, and people always break the law, even this man did. he stole the guns that he took to school. And, like most times, we found out too late.
As a teacher, I want to do everything I can to protect my students. Could me carrying a gun protect my students? Possibly. But with the teachers that are in our public schools, how could we know who to trust? Their is evil and corruption everywhere, and it can get into the hearts and minds of educators.
It’s true that guns don’t kill people, people kill people...with guns...with knives...with whatever tool they can use to inflict pain on others. Yesterday, on the same day that the tragedy happened at Sandy Hook Elementary, a Chinese man took a knife and attacked 22 students and 1 adult outside of a school in the latest of attacks outside of a school. It seems only a few months ago we were mourning the shooting in Aurora. A short while before that we mourned for Virginia Tech. And it was only 12 years ago that the tragedy happened at Columbine. And in each of these, it wasn’t the weapon that led to the tragedy it was the hate and sin in a person’s heart. Sin that led them to disassociate with reality and only focus on their own wants and hurting others.
I’m reminded today of the first murder, when Cain rose up against his brother Abel. He didn’t have a gun or any modern weapon that we have today. He was armed with his anger and malice towards his brother, and with that evil he rose up and killed his brother. Would God make a new rule or law that it’s illegal to rise up against your brother and kill him? No. But why would God let this happen? Because when we as humans turned to evil God allowed us to embrace it and has allowed it to effect our lives. But he provides a way to redemption through Jesus Christ. In Him we can cry out “Abba Father” and long to travel to a world beyond ours where the pain and hurt will cease. I know this doesn't fully answer the theological question, "Why does God allow suffering?" But it provides the answer we all need: Jesus.
Just last Sunday (the week before the shooting) my pastor preached from Matthew 2 and shared an “unconventional” Christmas story. He shared with us that surrounding the “beautiful” Christmas story we typically hear this time of year is tragedy. Within the Christmas Story is the story of Herod and how his fear and desire to be the only ruler led him to murder every child 2 and under, hoping to destroy Jesus. Here again we find such hate that led to the death of unnecessary lives. And what could people do on that day, but to look and wait for redemption.
We have a choice in tragedy and pain, we can give up hope. Hope that their is redemption, hope that this pain will end, hope that this life isn’t all their is. Or we can desperately wait for the return of our King. We can cry out “O Come O Come Emmanuel,” just as they cried out for Him over 2000 years ago. Last night, as we put our daughter to bed, we read her a Bible story as we do each night from her children’s Bible, this one was title “a prayer for children.” And with tears in our eyes we read: “Heavenly Father Bless each Child/ Protect them with your love/ Give them all the good things/ That you have up above/ Comfort them when their afraid/ And keep them in your care/ Let them know both day and night that you are always their.” We choose (Ashley and I) in this tragedy to pray harder and to teach my daughter that we can turn to Jesus even when it hurts.
You may think that I’m wrong for wanting to cling to faith, you may not, this may convince you that their is no God. If it does, you don’t know the God I know. He is the one that sent his Son to experience tragedy and death so that we could have redemption. It’s moments like these that I refuse to be satisfied with this life and find solace in Jesus Christ, my only hope for redemption from the evil that resides in this world and in me.
These are just observations as I am putting the pieces together from my own heart as many people are doing. I have seen some turn to anger, and I am angry. Angry at this young man that selfishly took the life of the innocent. Angry that no one seems to know warning signs when my brain say “someone should have saw this coming.” Angry that God allows such tragedy. But I take my anger and hurt and fears to God and attempt to surrender it to Him.
See I’m afraid that we as a nation and as individuals have become hard in our hearts. Hard enough to only be angry. Hard enough to make this about laws and who’s right whose wrong. We’ve seen so much tragedy that we are callous and forget how deeply this should effect us. I promise today that every student and parent in Connecticut knows the rawness that this tragedy brings. I pray that this wouldn’t cause them to be hard in their hearts, but to be broken before God, searching Him for answers.
If you and I truly want to be brave, we would cry out to God. We would weep and wail over these lives gone, over the hate that can feel a person’s heart, and out of the desperation in our hearts knowing we can change nothing and the ultimate answer for this tragedy can only be found when we seek our God through Jesus Christ. Then we would live each day, each moment, making the most of life, doing good to our fellow man, and live for God with every breath he gives us. I pray that this tragedy will change us, that we will seek God desperately, and that through one act of kindness at a time we can impact our world with more good than this one man did with one act of evil.
