Broken

Some tragedies hit too close to home. 

Tonight, as I was tucking my children into their beds, I couldn’t help but think of the families near us who are now faced with empty beds, empty arms.  Ever since I heard about the Newtown school shooting this morning, I have been thinking about how broken this world is.  How sin has broken the human soul.  How there can be no earthly healing for suffering like this.  How there can be no escape here from the dangers that sin wreaks in random and irrevocable ways.  Living in a bucolic, quiet neighborhood and sending your kids to good, safe schools does not protect them from violence.  Living a good, safe life does not protect us from the wages of our sins.  We are helpless to save ourselves from eternal suffering, just as we are helpless against a crazed gunman.  We need a Savior, one who bore the punishment for our sins and has redeemed us by His blood.  On this day of senseless, purposeless earthly bloodshed, I think of the One who shed his blood for the most amazing purpose of all: He died so that we may have eternal life with Him.  For “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13,14).  He knows the suffering that we are faced with on this earth, and He longs to bring us Home where there will be no more grieving.  “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).  Come quickly, Lord Jesus.