God, as more of the details of Friday have emerged my heart has broken for the families of victims. As I've read names and seen pictures of the children who were murdered. As I've seen videos of them and read stories of the final days and weeks of their lives I wonder how anyone could do this. As I watched an interview of a mother and father talking about their daughter who was taken from them, this has become more and more real.
I can't relate to their pain, and I pray I never will, but their pain is real. And it doesn't matter that I can't relate to them, because You can. Each child that was killed Friday morning was Your child. Each life that was ended was a life You had given, loved, and known everything about. The pain that these families are feeling is pain You are feeling with them. It is pain You understand more deeply than any human ever could.
Father, in Your love and compassion surround them. Help them to grieve, fill their minds with the joyful memories of the blessed years they had with their children. Guide them as they work through the anger. Surround them with people who will be quick to listen and slow to speak.
Above all I pray that You will fill them with hope. This is not the first time You watched Your child die. Nearly two thousand years ago you watched as Jesus, Your Son, was unjustly arrested, beaten, led outside of Jerusalem, and crucified in place of a criminal. But in His death there is hope and life for all. His sacrifice did not end in death, but in life, and because of Him hope and life are available for us as well.
This Christmas season as gifts remain wrapped and seats at the table are vacant, may they feel You all the nearer. May they know You are there with them, weeping with them. May they know that You are there offering hope, healing, and life. May their lives be filled with Your Spirit in ways that they have never experienced before. Father carry them through this time.
It is in the name of Jesus, the source of life and hope for the future, we lift these families up to You.
Amen
"I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread."
To God alone be the Glory!
Peace be with you
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