There was a time when “a Connecticut Christmas” would have
conjured up Christmas card images: flocked evergreens, multicolored lights
glistening on snow-covered streets, children sledding in the park, smoke
curling from chimneys where families gather around the warm glow of the
fireplace. But, four years ago this week, that image was shattered. On Dec. 14, 2012, a deranged 20 year-old walked into the Sandy Hook Elementary School
in Newton, Connecticut and killed 20 children between 6 and 7 years old along
with 6 faculty who tried to protect them.
When the news broke on that awful day, I found myself not
wanting to be disturbed by the painful images and stories. Four years later, I still
find myself watching little children singing Christmas carols at church on
Sunday and thinking about those who died in Newtown. I think about the families
with empty space under Christmas trees where presents no longer wait for their
children.
While the rest of the world has moved on from that tragic
day, I suspect there are mothers and fathers whose pain is still too deep for
words. I find myself wishing that this kind of evil were not present in the
world, wishing that the innocent did not suffer, that injustice and violence
did not exist. I found myself asking how God could let something like this
happen, especially on the cusp of the Christmas season.
Being warned in a dream that the child Jesus was in danger, Joseph fled with his Mary and the baby and went into hiding as refugees in Egypt.
The power of
that first Christmas is found in the fact that God embraced the confusing
cruelty of our world. It was in the midst of evil, pain and suffering that
Jesus was born. It was precisely because of the
senseless evil in this world that God sent His Son. He came to give His own innocent life as a
ransom for our sins. He conquered death
by His resurrection and one day He will remove the evil from this world by His
return.
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