On the Uvalde school shooting
I don’t even know, you guys.
I don’t know how a young man (it’s always a deranged young man, every single time) can destroy innocent children. Nineteen kids and two teachers were killed yesterday at Robb Elementary. Goldie’s first grade class has 22 kids in it. Imagine murdering close to an entire class’s worth of beautiful babies and the teachers charged to educate them.
Hearing about these horrific tragedies as a parent is torture. I was in 8th grade when Columbine happened. The kids who died in Columbine were only a two or three years older than me and at least two of them shared my faith. One of them shared my name. That leaves an impression. But after I became a parent, school shootings stopped leaving impressions. Now they go right to gouging at my very spirit.
I sent out a post yesterday about Matthew 18 and in light of yesterday’s Satanic activities in Texas, I would like to highlight an incredible verse in that chapter.
See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. -Matthew 18:10
I don’t know how the spirit realm works and I’m no theologian. But when Jesus tips the cards and says that the angels God assigns to watch over children have front and center access at all times to Him, I’m gonna believe Him. I’m going to believe His care for the most vulnerable humans is immense and exquisite, no matter what happens here on earth. I’m going to believe- we must believe, if we are to stay sane in the face of senseless tragedies- that vengeance is His and He will repay.1
My brother died when he was 15 and I was 17. It was no school shooting that carried Him away, but when we woke up that beautiful morning in late August, none of us knew he would die of hypothermia in the ocean later that day. When I say I’m going to believe that God is still God and somehow He will handle all this after children are shot in the face in Texas, it’s because I’ve had 20 years to practice saying it to myself about my own brother.
I just wanted to remind you guys that He’s still on the throne, that death is precious to God, children are precious to God, and when we feel the writhing pain of this tragedy we need to embrace that pain. It needs to affect us, because it affects God profoundly and we are His servants, and a servant is not greater than his master. Sympathy and all of it’s terrible helplessness is so Christlike it’s not even funny.2 We have to stay soft in this hardened world, if for no other reason than Jesus chose to live that way.3
Who cares, essentially, if a parent in California or Washington or Ohio had a hard time sleeping last night because of a tragedy in Texas? God sees it. God sees the parents who are suffering irreparable loss and He sees the parents who grieve alongside them, even from thousands of miles away. God will do things with all of this. God will win and work even when babies are murdered or little brothers die of hypothermia in the ocean.
While I was quickly researching the verse I cited above, I found a great article by the late Jay Vernon McGee that I highly recommend. He suffered the loss of his firstborn son and he has some great things to say about his process of trusting God in and through the death of children. Seriously, please read it.
And Lord Jesus… please come quickly.
Matthew 18:6-7 and Romans 12:19
Hebrews 4:15, Isaiah 53:3-4, 10-11
Philippians 2:4-8