Newtown

This week has had both difficult and joyous days. I joined with others watching the children of our church perform their Christmas play on Sunday night. My heart was warmed and blessed and I was so thankful for them. Then there was Friday; the day a near same number of children was torn from their Connecticut families in a horrific massacre.  Such contrasts overwhelm us, least it does me.

Certainly I was as stunned as everyone else with the senseless carnage that was wrought on such innocent and helpless people by a confused and disturbed man…boy.

Being a pastor, I have searched for appropriate words to say, but mostly I  have just been led to weep and pray for all of those effected. No matter, for it seems that there are plenty of people who have plenty of words to say.

Off-handedly I caught the comments of a FOX news anchor who said this: “Many people who do not profess faith, always seem to reach for it in times like these.” I thought to myself, well of course they do. What else is there? Will cracking down on gun laws help the grieving heart? Will a presidential visit make it all better? Will a thousand new mental institutions with hundreds of new treatments restore what has been lost?

People may check the “none” box for religious affiliation on personal information sheets, but when their very lives have been broken beyond belief, God is to whom they turn. There is nowhere else to go, is there?!

Today I’m very much in prayer for the clergy people who are conducting the funerals of those who died. I cannot imagine conducting 7 funerals in one week as I heard Father Weiss, of St. Rose of Lima in Newtown is charged with doing. God help all who are serving these families. May God have mercy and bring steadiness, strength and the grace of Christ to all.

 

Today, I am revisioning the little ones who died. They are with the Lord. I know that beyond any doubt. Even though I did not know them at all, I'm thankful for their lives. I am also thankful for the grace to know that God loves them and has them tucked safely in his arms. May I also have the grace to know that God loves Adam Lanza, and through that same grace may I forgive him for what he did to the innocent little ones.