But There Is Hope

I have struggled with deep emotions since Friday, trying to put into words this unfathomable tragedy in Connecticut.  I have started a half dozen blogs, abandoned in mid-sentence, my throat tight, tears in my eyes, prayers for those families who lost so much.

And then wading through this strong current, it came together, not through any brilliance on my part, but God's Word coming suddenly to the surface.  So many verses of Scripture that I read this week converged.  Here is what I had jotted in my journal, even before the incident unfolded.

...when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me.  Micah 7.8
(no matter how deep the darkness)

...and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  Revelation 7.17
(restoration of the world, what God intended this world to be)

Every word of God proves true.  He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.  Proverbs 30.5
(the freedom to walk in the midst,  His Word provides incredible freedom)

The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble.  He knows those who take refuge in Him.  Nahum 1.7
(stay focused on God, despite what is going on all around you)

After this I looked, and behold,, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues... Revelation 7.9
(from every corner of the world, redeemed and restored)

The last chapter has been written already.  God reigns.  God prevails and has revealed that hope to us throughout His Word.  God's hope is not as what the world portrays as wishful thinking.  The hope of God is that on which I can stake my life.

God has showed us what He has done about evil.    We celebrate next week the coming of His only Son who came to save us.

For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.           Romans 8. 38-39


We stutter at the magnitude of evil that was revealed last Friday.  But evil does not get the last word.