Here we are at Christmas time, and the story of the Christ child's birth and this terrible massacre of such very young children and adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
We celebrate Jesus' birth, but we rarely recall the terrible massacre afterward.
(Matthew 2:11-18, NIV)
11 On coming to the house, they (the Magi) saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.“Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”
Dear Jesus,
We come before you weeping for these precious children and teachers who are no more. We weep with their fathers, mothers, siblings, grandparents, friends, and loved ones. You who are our Comforter in sorrow, their hearts are faint within them, and so are ours. These families cry out in their grief, mourning their loved ones who were murdered.
That’s why they are sobbing. Tears are flowing from their eyes. Not one of us is near enough to comfort these who have lost their loved ones. No human can heal these families. Their children are gone. Their enemies were much too strong for them. Jesus, just as you asked the Father, I too ask that you will give these families and friends the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with them each moment, each hour, each day, and forevermore. So be it Lord, Amen.
(Jeremiah 8:18, NIV; Lamentations 1:16, NIRV; (John 14:16, AMP all paraphrased)
