A Nation Grieves For Newtown

As I listened to the rain outside my house Sunday evening, my thoughts continued to be preoccupied with Friday's heartbreaking tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, a senseless ordeal that not only shook and staggered that small community, but an entire nation that continues to grieve over the loss of 26 innocent people.  Some 20 of those victims were young children, either 6 or 7-years-old.

As I searched my mind for ideas for a blog idea this past weekend,  it did not even seem respectful to me to consider writing about anything  else other than what many people are calling our nation's most horrific tragedy. 

It is hard to pinpoint where I would classify the Newtown nightmare in terms of comparison, as tragic occurrences in our increasingly troubled and lost nation, whether it be shootings or acts of terrorism or whatever, are becoming so commonplace now.  The lines are beginning to be blurred in terms of what makes one event worse than another one, especially when innocent lives are lost.

Obviously this tragedy has more emotional connotations than many of those other ones because it involved the loss of so many innocent angels, and children that had this Christmas and so many other ones to look forward to, as well as birthdays, graduations, marriages and so many other adventures in life still ahead. Even if you are a person who has been hardened by the somewhat harsh realities of life at times, the thought of beautiful and innocent children being gunned down and taken from their families and friends can only grip your heart in many deep ways, and it is almost too much to bear unless you truly have no soul.

It did not initially seem possible, but this story is becoming even more increasingly difficult, as we now are beginning to learn more about these innocent victims, and this not only includes the children who perished at the hands of a sick and evil person named Adam Lanza, but also the heroic adults who lost their lives attempting to save youngsters such as Dylan Hockley, Noah Pozner, Allison Wyatt and Emillie Parker.

We are now seeing the precious faces of those victims, and now we are going to have to watch funeral scenes. One thing is certain, and that is the town of Newtown, Connecticut will never be the same, and the people of this community will likely be scarred for life. Can you even begin to imagine what the surviving children will have to deal with the rest of their lives, especially the ones who experienced the terrible nightmare of witnessing the massacred bodies of their playmates and friends. No person should ever have to experience a scene like that, and especially a child. Some degree of innocence will be forever lost for these children, and for this town in general.

When and where does the healing begin for this friendly community? It is really hard to know.

Upon seeing a couple of the recent pictures of Lanza, all I could see was Satan, or pure evil incarnate. Let there be no doubt, there is a special place in Hell for any person who could kill his own mother, steal her gun and then go to the school where she taught and proceed to systematically and ruthlessly kill off people she held so dear to her heart. Lanza shot many of these victims multiple times and at close range. I also find it difficult to believe that the responders to this scene could ever really recover from what they witnessed either. 

While Lanza's actions were heinous, horrific, heartless or any other adjective you can use to describe the crimes that he perpetrated against this community, the troubling aspect to this whole story is,  as horrifying as this tragedy seems, it's hard to describe it as shocking because it is just the "latest" tragedy to grip our nation.

I guess I am more numb regarding this tragedy than anything else.  

I have shed a few tears, but at the same time I, like many others, am becoming increasingly desensitized by a nation and world which are seemingly losing more of their spiritual, moral, economic and political footing on a weekly basis.

While Satan was able to utilize Lanza as his tool to create this amazingly horrific and cruel situation in Newtown and make his statement that evil is truly alive and well in our world and nation, his power to pervert and defile everything that is good and pure in our world can be found in our schools, churches, homes, marriages and relationships, music, the Internet, video games, entertainment such as television and movies and of course the presence of pornography, abortion clinics and other significant menaces to our society.

As the events of this pre-Christmas tragedy emphasize to us once again, no one is promised tomorrow, and although I don't intend to sound overly preachy, the people of this nation need to seriously think about getting their "houses" in order.  And that definitely includes yours truly.

Cynics and non-Christians were no doubt ready to jump on this situation and shout out that a loving God would not allow such a horrible tragedy to occur, especially to children, and that He should have intervened.

Of course this comes from the same people who would prefer to have God removed from every significent facet of our lives, whether it be our schools, our traditions and holidays and even our laws and rules. Guess what, you cannot have it both ways.

There are still many good people in this world, and I love my country and my family and my friends and my church, but I am also resigned to the fact that this nation, and this world overall is nearing its end, and to say the thought of that upsets me would be disingenuous. 

The Newtown tragedy is just a small example of the fact that Satan and evil are continuing to win the battle for possession of our world, and Biblical scripture tells us that things are simply  not going to get better. It is definitely not a world that I am sure that I would want to bring a child into now, as defeatist and depressing as that might sound. 

Does that mean that I think the world is going to end in the next few years, or even the next few months or days?

Maybe not, but it would not shock me, as I think from a Christian standpoint that God has had just about enough, and I do think the end of times will occur at some point in my lifetime. 

Enough preaching for now, however, but I do want to end this commentary by expressing my total grief and heartbreak regarding this tragedy, and my condolences to everyone associated with this event, whether it be the victims, survivors, the families and friends of those lost, and the entire community of Newtown, Connecticut.

I also pray for God's mercy on our troubled and reeling nation and world.