He is in the Darkness

I don't really have anything profound to say about the school shooting yesterday. A day that started out with getting out of bed late, quick breakfasts, and hurried goodbyes as little ones rushed off to school, ended with terror, heartache, and terrible, unanswerable questions. Twenty mamas went to bed with out goodnight hugs last night. Hundreds of children didn't sleep because every time they closed their eyes, the saw the carnage, remembered the fear, and heard the pop of the guns. Teachers and school staff went to bed asking themselves if they did enough to protect innocent lives, wishing they had done more, and feeling guilty because they survived. It was not an easy day. No of us can imagine how a man could walk into a classroom and take little lives. Few of us can comprehend what it will be like to celebrate Christmas in just a few days while the silence screams that someone is missing. None of us knows where - or how - to begin to pick up the pieces. We have questions about gun laws. We have questions about God.....like how? and Why? and Didn't you see? Our human minds just cannot make sense of so much horror. There is so much I just don't know. But here's what I do know: God comforts all who mourn. He loved that terrible, tortured gunman, too. He knows where and how to begin to pick up the pieces. He knew this day was coming. He had a purpose for those little ones, those adults, and though we may not like it very much or understand it at all, their purpose on this side of Glory was completed. He is still God and He's still good. It's easy to call for stricter gun laws or more security at schools. I'm not saying those are bad things. But, the problem here is in the heart of man. No law is going to stop the evil that is in the heart. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" Until we each deal with our sin problem, these are the facts of life. Until Jesus comes back and restores all that sin has stolen from us, until that day when He forever redeems the curse - evil will see to win. BUT, there is coming a day when He will restore and redeem. He will win in the end. These tears as hot and bitter as they are, will be wiped away. There is coming a day when all things will be made new. And for that day I groan in anticipation.