Little children should not die in terror. But they do. Every day.
We lie to our children, we tell them that we will always be there to protect them, or if you are religious, you tell them that God loves them and will protect them.
But what happens when it all goes wrong? When floodwaters rip young children out of their mother's arms (as happened during Hurricane Sandy) or a gunman enters a school and starts blazing away. What then of our reassurances?
There is a billboard outside of town that has a series of pictures on it. Four are of a tranquil landscape. The fifth is a dark and menacing tornado. "What happens when the day before is the day before?" The message is one never knows when and where disaster might strike.
Right after Hurricane Sandy hit we were singing the song that goes "He is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane, I'm like a tree, bending beneath the weight of his love and mercy." And I thought, as I always do, that this is an odd image, that what does love and hurricanes (or tornadoes for that matter) have to do with each other? Has the person who wrote these lyrics ever experienced one of these storms? Had their whole lives devastated? Lost loved ones? And then I thought, I bet there aren't too many people on the East Coast right now that are singing this song. We can sing it because we haven't been through anything like Sandy. The ironic thing was that just before we sang this the song leader said, "Now think about the words of this song." Well, I do. I have. And it doesn't make any sense at all. Please explain. Because I don't get it. I know what I am supposed to think, but I don't get it.
Pastor said this morning that he didn't understand the Connecticut shooting. None of us do. But it's his job to get up there and reassure us all.
What I would like to know is what was going through the heads of the two children that were swept away by floodwaters while it was happening. What was going through the heads of the children who were shot? Had they learned about God in some comfy Sunday-school class and was it Him that they were thinking of? Or was it blind, unreasoning terror?
That is no way to end a life.
We lie to our children, we tell them that we will always be there to protect them, or if you are religious, you tell them that God loves them and will protect them.
But what happens when it all goes wrong? When floodwaters rip young children out of their mother's arms (as happened during Hurricane Sandy) or a gunman enters a school and starts blazing away. What then of our reassurances?
There is a billboard outside of town that has a series of pictures on it. Four are of a tranquil landscape. The fifth is a dark and menacing tornado. "What happens when the day before is the day before?" The message is one never knows when and where disaster might strike.
Right after Hurricane Sandy hit we were singing the song that goes "He is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane, I'm like a tree, bending beneath the weight of his love and mercy." And I thought, as I always do, that this is an odd image, that what does love and hurricanes (or tornadoes for that matter) have to do with each other? Has the person who wrote these lyrics ever experienced one of these storms? Had their whole lives devastated? Lost loved ones? And then I thought, I bet there aren't too many people on the East Coast right now that are singing this song. We can sing it because we haven't been through anything like Sandy. The ironic thing was that just before we sang this the song leader said, "Now think about the words of this song." Well, I do. I have. And it doesn't make any sense at all. Please explain. Because I don't get it. I know what I am supposed to think, but I don't get it.
Pastor said this morning that he didn't understand the Connecticut shooting. None of us do. But it's his job to get up there and reassure us all.
What I would like to know is what was going through the heads of the two children that were swept away by floodwaters while it was happening. What was going through the heads of the children who were shot? Had they learned about God in some comfy Sunday-school class and was it Him that they were thinking of? Or was it blind, unreasoning terror?
That is no way to end a life.
