The summer of 2022 has started with unimaginable grief. We are living in a time of just pure evil with insurmountable loss that leaves you cut to the core, crying on the floor. The kind of grief that makes you wonder and ask the questions that sometimes you don’t even want to venture to ask. The “Why God?” questions or “How could a good God let this happen?” or “Is God even there?”
Today is one of those days. Fresh off the Uvalde massacre, road rage shootings, Tulsa hospital shootings, etc. etc., we woke this morning to the most horrific news possible concerning one of the Godliest families we know. This family is a family that is generations of REALLY, REALLY GOOD PEOPLE. In the south, we would say, at the mention of this family’s name, “There is not an unkind soul in the entire bunch.” They are the kind of people Jesus taught about. The kind that would give you their tunic. The kind that would pray with you. The kind that would feed you. They are generations of hands and feet of Jesus. Every time you were around them or even saw them, you couldn’t help but smile. It was like the presence of God was always glowing and flowing from them.
That is why today is so hard. Something horrific happened to them. Something so horrific you feel the grief in your bones.
And you wonder … And you cry … And you hurt … And you scream out for God!
Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire,
where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
and the flood sweeps over me.
I am weary with my crying out;
my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim
with awaiting for my God. Psalm 69:1-3
But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD.
At an acceptable time, O God,
in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.
Deliver me
from sinking in the mire;
let me be delivered from my enemies
and from the deep waters.
Let not the flood sweep over me,
or the deep swallow me up,
or tthe pit close its mouth over me.
Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good;
according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.
Hide not your face from your servant,
for I am in distress; make haste to answer me.
Draw near to my soul, redeem me;
ransom me because of my enemies! Psalm 69:13-18
I recenlty read a quote that I have kept mulling over during this season of evil.
“I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him. I know the devil exists, and therefore I know that there is a God.” Lt Gen Romeo Dallaire, part of the UN mission to Rwanda in 1994
Recently, I keep being reminded of the shortest verse in the Bible: Jesus Wept. John 11:35
I truly believe that Jesus has been standing (much like he did when Stephen was stoned), looking down as these innocent children are being murdered day by day, and he is weeping.
In John 11, we see Jesus grieving the death of his friend Lazarus. He knows that Lazarus will literally rise again, yet the Bible tells us Jesus is “deeply moved.” The ESV Study Bible refers to it as this:
Jesus was moved with profound sorrow at the death of his friend and at the grief that his other friends had suffered. In addition, this sorrow was intermixed with anger at the evil of death (the final enemy; see 1 Cor. 15:26; Rev. 21:4), and also with a deep sense of awe at the power of God that was about to flow through him to triumph over death (in anticipation of his voice summoning the whole world to the resurrection on the last day).
Today all I hold on to is the comfort that Jesus is sitting or standing by God on His throne advocating for this family that we all love so dearly. As the grief continues to wash over us all, I know we have a Savior that sympathizes with that grief and is holding those precious loved ones in His arms right now!
Oh Father God, Have mercy on us all as we grieve these tremendous losses. As my husband, Rob, prayed this morning when we heard the news, please send Jesus back. We long for His coming to restore our Earth and right the wrongs we have faced! Amen.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:1-4
