I had a hard time falling asleep last night. I cried. I prayed. I felt sick. I couldn’t stop thinking about all the parents who lost children, children who lost parents, friends who lost friends, siblings who lost siblings in Newtown, CT yesterday. I was at work from 8-4 and the physicians had CNN on all day. So I watched 8 hours of news as they first announced there was a shooting and one person was found dead, then they suspected that person was the shooter, then they realized the principal and school psychologist had been killed, then a few children, and so on until coming to the final, horrific story of 6 adults and 20 children killed by 20-year-old Adam Lanza.
Shocking, horrifying, devastating.
Pure evil on display.
It makes us all feel sick at the thought of life being stolen away from people so suddenly and tragically. As President Obama said,”The majority of those who died were children — beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old.”
How can you not feel grieved, troubled, hatred for the whole incident?
How do we respond to this tragedy? I hate cliches. I hate when people throw around faith phrases that are very well true, but not necessarily appropriate to say at the time. So I’m not going to do that. Yes, God is good. But in a situation like this, I’d rather state the fact that Satan is evil. Satan hates children. Satan delights in tragedy. It’s ok to be angry. Satan deserves our rage and disgust.
“Let’s not offer pat, easy answers to the grieving parents and communities in Connecticut. We don’t fully understand the mystery of iniquity. We don’t know why God didn’t stop this from happening. But we do know what this act is: it’s satanic, and we should say so.
Let’s grieve for the innocent. Let’s demand justice for the guilty. And let’s rage against the Reptile behind it all.
As we do so, let’s remember that Bethlehem was an act of war. Let’s remember that the One born there is a prince of peace who will crush the skull of the ancient murderer of Eden. Let’s pray for the Second Coming of Mary’s son. And, as we sing our Christmas carols, let’s look into the slitted eyes of Satan as we promise him the threat of his coming crushed skull.
The mystery of evil is a declaration of war on the peace of God’s creation. The war goes on, but not for long. And sometimes the most warlike thing we can say, in an inhuman murderous age like this one, is ‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.‘”
-Dr. Russell D. Moore
For the record: Satan, I hate you. And Jesus is going to crush you. The gospel brings us hope in the midst of tragedy and hope for the day when good will finally triumph over evil: God will beat Satan once and for all.
Read this if you want the full article containing that quote, along with other responses by John Piper, Albert Mohler, Russell Moore, and Tim Keller on the Newtown Tragedy: Tragedy in Newtown: A Christian Response.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Roshini Isabell 