He Was There

It’s taken me a while to find the words to capture how I feel about what happened in Newtown last week. Then I realized that’s just it. There aren’t any words, they’re will never be any words. What happened to those children and their teachers is unspeakable. Broken hearts were felt around the world by people who didn’t even know the victims.

Of course in the days that followed, everyone had an opinion about why it happened, what could have been done differently, and what needs to be done to change things in the future so that it NEVER happens again. There were conversations about gun laws, mental health, and the amount of violence we expose children to through movies, music, video games, and every other kind of media outlet.

I only reacted negatively to one thing that I kept hearing over and over. There are these “notes from God” circulating around the internet. I've posted a picture to the left, so take a second and read it. While searching for it, I saw  there are even t-shirts. I get it, I do. People are angry that the same people that want to remove God from these environments then blame Him whenever something horrible happens.

My problem is this... the subtext of that message is saying that people have the power to tell God where He can and cannot be, and implying that He wasn’t at Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday.  That’s the furthest thing from the truth and it's the wrong message to put out there. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that God was there, that His arms were wrapped around those twenty six people as their last breaths were taken that morning.

God’s presence is more than just a word in the pledge of allegiance or an audible prayer. Just because people say they don’t want Him in public schools, does not mean God draws a line at the entrance and makes sure not to cross it. God doesn’t work that way and I for one, am grateful. My prayer is that people don't use what happened as an excuse to blame God, but rather as a reason for why we so desperately need Him.

“Am I only a God nearby,”

declares the Lord,

 “and not a God far away?
Who can hide in secret places
  
so that I cannot see them?”

declares the Lord.
  
“Do not I fill heaven and earth?”

declares the Lord.
~ Jeremiah 23: 23-24

Xo,
Lauren