What a tragedy!

Initial news reports have just broken about the horrific elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut which has taken the lives of at least 20 children and 6 staff.

You can never be prepared for this kind of incident.

Upon hearing this news, most of us are hit with intense grief, heartbreak, anger and nausea. Why do things like this happen? What causes someone to be so lost, so depraved to commit such a heinous crime?

As parents we immediately think of our own children and their safety, yearning to pull them out of their schools and wrap our arms around them. Then our thoughts move onto the innocent children who didn’t deserve this. We grieve for the parents and families who have been robbed of a future with their children. Who will never see their babies graduate, walk down the aisle and have children of their own.

So where do we go from here?

WE PRAY!

..for those affected.
..for a rising of hope in our nation.
..for depraved individuals to find mental, spiritual and emotional help.

When things like this happen, Twitter and Facebook become flooded with updates of those offering up prayers to the Lord. It becomes evident that people really do understand that there is a God who comforts the afflicted and brings hope to the hopeless. In an interview with Tony Perkins on Fox News Live America, news correspondent Megyn Kelly stated:

“Faith has been a common thread that has bound us for so long.”

Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, then responded with:

“It’s only when we trust our creator and those who have a relationship with Christ – that helps us processes this grief. It keeps us accountable as individuals and keeps us connected as a community.”

Now is the time for us to come together as communities and reach out to those who are hurting- to bring hope to the hopeless and to pray for restoration of lives. These families of the victims are in an acute state of hopelessness. Their pain will not be gone tomorrow or even in the next year. Our lives go on, but their grief will eat away at the core of who they are.

Although they will never be the same again, Psalms 147:3 tells us that God heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

So let’s really pray for these victims and our nation. Let’s not forget them tomorrow or in a month. Let’s pray that the Lord uses this tragedy to turn the hearts of people toward him.