No Words

There aren't always words to describe the horrors that result from human depravity. Lives have been forever altered today. There are parents whose arms will never hold their babies again, and children who witnessed horrors that no child should ever have to see.

Sometimes the consequences of sin are seen all too clearly. 

Barnabas Piper blogged earlier this week about the tension between knowing that God is good and knowing that life wasn't meant to be this way. It is a post that now seems all too appropriate considering the circumstances of the morning. The conclusion that he comes to is this:

See, it’s not supposed to be this way. Over all this brokenness is a God, a good God, who is in charge of all things including life and death. And in his sovereignty things happen that shouldn't happen. There isn't any riddling this out in way that works for human minds...A tension exists, polar truths creating a present reality. God is good. It shouldn't be this way. God is sovereign. Bad things happen.

How do you respond knowing that the shooting absolutely should not have happened? Children should not be shot. Men should not kill. And yet both happened. And God is still good. God is still sovereign. How do you reconcile those truths?

I don't think you can, at least not here on this earth.

Ultimately, I think the only place to turn in a broken world is where Job went when he lost everything: the foot of the throne. The only place where true comfort is found is in seeing God. It is in crying, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name the name of the Lord," not because you understand, but because you know the God that you serve.

It is learning to say, "Amen," because you know the God who used the greatest evil committed at the cross of Christ to redeem His enemies for His good purposes.

It is a beautiful and horrifying tension, especially on days like today. It is a desperate place to be. But there is comfort here, where grief flows heavily and yet peace still reigns.