Evil

It's several days now since Sandy Hook Elementary was shot up by a lone gunman.  It's what every one is talking about.  Every news outlet leads with a story about this town in Connecticut that I'm sure I would have never heard of had this not happened.  Newtown.

Everyone seems to have an opinion, a thought, a prayer, a solution, or a reason.  I have nothing.  Literally nothing, but what I heard said in a news story that "evil visited" that school that day.  That resonated with me as the only thing.  The only opinion, thought, prayer or reason that could for one second make sense of the senseless.

We as a society don't do well with things that don't make sense. 
We want things to fit together nicely.  Nothing about shooting 20 kindergarteners and 6 adults can be understood.  Evil.  Pure evil in the shape of a 20 year old boy with a crazed mind.  There is no comfort in that. 

I think of those babies and the adults who tried to stand in his way, how that community is shattered.  I think about the gunman's family and how they must have struggled with him throughout his life.  I think about my babies and how I quite literally can't protect them from evil on my own.  And, there can be no comfort outside of Jesus in this mess.  I can't logically understand how God could allow this to happen.  I can't in good faith provide any sort of reason or opinion on why those children and adults were killed.  All I know is that when tragedy beyond understanding comes upon us, we can only find peace that passes understanding in Christ.  It's not easy.  It's not logical.  And it does not fit nicely with the emotions of 26 senseless murders, but it is the only place I feel safe.