Why?

       

In 2012 alone, we’ve mourned with the family of Trayvon Martin, the victims of the Colorado mass shooting this summer, and just last week there was a shooting in an Oregon mall.  Here we go again.  Unless you live under a rock, by now you’ve heard about the tragic mass shooting Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, in which over two dozen people fell prey at the hands of a maniacal lunatic.  

I’m sure that yesterday started out as a normal TGIF, but later turned into a horrific day that many will never forget.  As a teacher, there are a myriad of feelings shooting through me, ranging from denial, anger, and disdain, to name a few.  My heart goes out the families, who in the wake of Christmas must make preparations to bury their children, as well as the members of the Sandy Hook School who have to try to function normalcy as their school leader and other members of their staff were brutally and pointlessly murdered.  Yesterday, I found great comfort in the hymn “There’s a wideness in God’s Mercy.” 

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea;
there’s a kindness in his justice, which is more than liberty.
There is welcome for the sinner, and more graces for the good;
there is mercy with the Savior; there is healing in his blood.

There is no place where earth’s sorrows are more felt up in heaven;
there is no place where earth’s failings have such kindly judgment given.
There is plentiful redemption in the blood that has been shed;
there is joy for all the members in the sorrows of the Head.

For the love of God is broader than the measure of the mind;
and the heart of Eternal is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more faithful, we should take him at his word;
and our life would be thanksgiving for the goodness of the Lord.

Beloved let us be ever mindful that as things in life go up in smoke, and they will from time to time, that from the smoke and the ash of broken hearts and shattered dreams; rejoicing, love and hope will arise, and just as the incarnate Christ dwelled among us, so to shall these three.  May the eternal Prince of Peace restore peace and order to the people of Connecticut, our nation and the world.

Peace,
Karsten