Nightmare in Connecticut

Genesis 3:6 - When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Genesis 4:8 - Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let’s go out to the field." While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

 Like all of you, I sat, once again, in disbelief as the atrocity of the day’s news unfolded before us. Twenty kindergartners were killed in a Connecticut grade school this morning. Another school, another massacre of children, this time, unimaginably, a classroom of five-year old kindergarten kids.

As the grandparents of two kindergartners, my wife and I sat watching the horrific scenes from a Connecticut grade school in mostly stunned silence, only interrupted by Teri’s occasional sobbing as her heart broke over the loss of these precious lives.

The news broadcasters are in unison. No matter what pundit you turn to, they all seem to be asking a form of the question, why. What is going on in this world? Where did all this evil come from? Reread the above passages. Genesis 3:6 documents the fall of mankind. Adam and Eve escorted sin into the world.  One generation later, one of their sons, Cain, murdered his brother Abel.   Sin’s effect on mankind moved quickly then...and continues to do so.

In 1962, the United States Supreme Court abolished what we commonly knew as school prayer. A routine part of the school day was a simple moment of prayer. But now days, school is a place where God is not welcome in any way, shape, or form. And yet, there will be those who, upon hearing today’s tragic news, cry out "Where was God in all this?!?"  I wonder if those same folks think it mere coincidence that these type of mass killings in schools did not exist before the 1960's.

A few minutes ago, I watched from our back deck as a young mother waited for her child stepping off a school bus. She walked him back to their house about a block away.  I’ve seen her on that walk dozens of times, but today she must have had a sense of reflection about the 20 Connecticut mothers and fathers that won’t have their children home with them tonight.   I know I did...

Please Lord Jesus, comfort those parents, grandparents,and other family members who are suffering through this nightmarish night. Love them in a way that only You can. Forgive us, Lord God, for the measures we’ve taken as a nation to move further and further from You, for the evilness we’ve legislated, for the ungodliness our country’s embraced. We fall on our knees and cry out to You for mercy.

Amen