This Christmas, I have a renewed understanding of why the angels sang and the heaven’s lit up when the Child of Peace was born. I believe I will better grasp why the angels ecstatic announcements roused the shepherds from their sleep.
As a nation, we continue to reel in the wake of the news we’ve just heard of unimaginable horror in Newtown, Connecticut. We gasp for breath, searching for an appropriate response to an unspeakable evil. In our efforts to be sensitive to the unfathomable sorrow of that tiny community, discussions about corrective or protective measures serve as a vehicle of grief for us all. It’s good that in a time like this we unite around efforts to correct and prevent similar events.
Culturally, 9/11 proved to be a tipping point for us; but in the long range, it mainly resulted in how we navigate through our airports. We coined terms like “First Responders” and “Homeland Security” that now roll off our tongues as though they always existed.
However, the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy should produce far greater, longer-range changes than the deadlier attack by radical terrorists.
Why? Because 9/11 was an attack from outside, by evil forces from without. The shooting of 20 innocent children by a native son is undeniably an attack of evil from within. When we were attacked by evil from outside it only seemed to heighten our sense of being morally superior. But when we are attacked from within we must search deeper. I’m praying that is exactly what will transpire over the coming months.
This will change everything. America should measure with renewed purpose its own moral codes. I just hope that the rapid news cycle will not too quickly redirect our attention from this tragedy.
The children of Sandy Hook will carry this terror with them for the remainder of their lives. Even as adults, they will be identified as “one of the Sandy Hook children.” Their innocence will be forever emotionally and psychologically scarred.
I pray that a renewed understanding of right and wrong will emerge within our national consciousness. I pray that we, as a nation, might repent or our moral decay. I pray that our leaders will not continue to allow the moral free fall of our society. I’m asking you join with me in praying that those who have hidden behind civil liberties in order to profit will be held accountable for the horrible harvest we are reaping.
Many are saying, “There is no simple solution to this violence.” But I believe there is a single solution. His name is Wonderful, Counselor, The Prince of Peace, whom The Everlasting Father will, one day, rest the government of the world upon His shoulders.
I hope we, as a nation, will pray as He did—
“I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one.
“I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”
John 17:15, 21 NLT
Won’t you pray with me that our society will see the Prince of Peace as the answer to our moral decay and call on Him for restoration?
I believe this changes everything! Won’t you pray with me?