Psalm 34:18
18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
As I write this, I am hearing the information coming in about the shooting at Annunciation Church and School in Minneapolis.
We pray for the students, staff, parents, and community members who have been forever changed through the events of the morning. The question of the day is Why? Why would someone stand outside of a church and shoot children through stained-glass windows?
This is not a trivial answer: Satan is alive and well and affects the hearts and minds of people every day. He works with those who know Christ and those who do not. His voice is masked; Scripture tells us he appears as an Angel of Light.
Earlier this week, a 14-year-old boy who loved the Lord, with a beautiful, caring family, chose to take his life. We can not know the twisted work of God's enemy and the forces of mental illness. As a Pastor personally affected by depression in my own life and the battle that my son fights, we dare not take these events lightly. We must be people of prayer, not just in the hours following these events, but daily for those we know and love, and those we do not personally know. We also must be people of Hope, for we live under the care and calling of a Living Lord, risen from the dead, Jesus the Christ.
God of Grace, these are days that words escape us, but we trust in your promises, which tell us that you are near to the broken-hearted, that you weep with those who mourn, and you pour out your love and grace onto us all. Today, Father, we ask that you replace the images of death and violence with images of life and resurrection. Lord in your mercy...
<><Pastor Craig
Psalm 147:2-4
2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. 3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. 4 He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.