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December 17 – A Voice Is Heard

Read: Nahum 1:1-3:19, Revelation 8:1-13, Psalm 136:1-26, Proverbs 30:7-9

A cry was heard in Ramah – weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead. (Matthew 2:18)

 

 

Relate: All week I’m going to be grabbing verses out of the Christmas story as my verse of the day rather than something from the daily reading. While I believe there is no end from the daily readings that I can pull from, this is Christmas week. I’m willing to bend a little, I guess. Considering the events of this past weekend, it only felt right that I should start with this.

Bethlehem was a small town. There was a major influx of people for a short while, the place was busting at the seams when everyone arrived for the census, but the crowds had long since gone home. Except Joseph and Mary. Their child was around a year old, maybe two when some very distinguished visitors arrived with some very expensive gifts. It must have been the talk of this little town of around two hundred people. For a short while it must have been… pretty soon they would forget all about it.

An angel showed up in a dream and warned Joseph. He managed to skip town before the soldiers arrived. But what about the rest of the fathers? What about the rest of the kids? In a town that size, at that time, there were probably between 10-30 kids two and under. It’s not nearly the mass slaughter we sometimes hear it portrayed. It wasn’t even a significant enough event to make it into Josephus’ history. But that made no difference to 10-30 families. Why didn’t they get a warning? Jesus was spared, but why weren’t they? If you have a good answer for that, I’d love to hear it. I don’t. There’s a lot of things I don’t have an answer for. Why on earth… No. Why in hell, didn’t God do something to prevent the slaughter in Newtown CT this past week? I don’t know.

 

React: I know what survivor’s guilt is. I’ve seen tragedy and asked why did they have to go and why not me instead? I’ve asked God why someone else had to see what they saw, to experience what they experienced and not me? Can you imagine the survivors guilt some poor little kids must be experiencing? He was hidden in a closet. She was locked in a bathroom. But they heard the gunshots. They heard the teacher lie to protect them. They saw her body. They were there at the firehouse picking up their kids while watching their neighbors look in vain. Why them and not me? Why that classroom and not mine? Why were we allowed to escape to Egypt while the neighbors had their baby ripped from their arms and murdered by a brute masquerading as a soldier?

There are many questions that I cannot answer, but they must be asked. I don’t know. I wish I did, but any rationalization, any explanation about free will or God’s larger plan or… anything will sound just as shallow in my ears as it would to anyone listening. It won’t bring comfort to a Christmas reunion that is missing a loved one.

But there is something I do know. God hears. More than that, God came. A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more. A voice is heard. He hears. A voice is heard in Newtown. Mothers weeping for their children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more. This world can be a bitter, hard, cruel, evil world. God knew that and He entered into it anyways. He was a hero who stepped into an impossible situation knowing it would cost Him His life, but that it would save ours. Victoria Soto‘s story is what Christmas is all about.

 

Respond: Please continue to pray for the friends and families of those who have lost their lives at the shooting this past Friday. Pray also for the many for whom Christmas is a time of sadness and loss as they are have lost someone they love.