Christmas should be a little different for each of us this year. After all, for about 40 of our fellow American moms and dads, it certainly will be after the terrible massacre that occurred in Newtown, CT.
Not since 9/11 has a tragedy stuck with me like this one has and almost everyone I have talked to says the same thing. This one just hurts nearly too bad to even think about.
We hurt. We are sad. Yet, it’s Christmas.
Miles away the holiday season has changed forever. It was senseless and more evil than any Hollywood flick and we are angry about it. Sometimes all we know to do is offer a simple prayer of "please help them God".
I’ve decided that it’s ok to pause here and there this weekend and think about those families. It’s ok to tear up looking at your little kids and even feel a little guilt for proceeding with “Christmas as usual”. All of our lives were changed by a gunman with no humanness to him. As our President said so nicely those children murdered “were all our children”. The adults that were murdered were our heroes.
As American’s we hurt together and stand together, even when we disagree with each other. So it only makes sense that each of us should find a way this Christmas to acknowledge the underlining tug on our hearts as we open presents, enjoy the company and the time off from routine. The tug we feel is the tie that binds us. The families who lost their loved ones don’t deserve for us to bury our heads in the sand just because we can’t handle thinking about it. They need us.
It could have been my Chloe, Sidney or Quinn that day. It could have been yours.
Our world is insane.
Jesus came to a dying, hurting, mean world. I don’t mean his world. I mean ours. The entire meaning of Christmas was to give a world like ours hope and the peace of knowing there would be an end to evil and eternity in our future. All we have to do is believe and tell Him so. It’s His free gift to us.
Certainly those precious children stepped into eternity instantly and are now angels in Heaven having more fun than any Christmas Day. But all the pain for those of us left here means nothing if we don’t embrace it and ask God to change us.
God will not allow evil to win even when it feels like it has. Lives will be changed and God will be at work. Our world is very, very sick. No doubt about it.
And when you are in a season like we are, we need the reason that He is.
Charlotte Bacon, Daniel Barden, Rachel Davino, Olivia Engel, Josephine Gay, Ana M. Marquez-Greene, Dylan Hockley, Dawn Hochsprung, Madeleine F. Hsu, Catherine V. Hubbard, Chase Kowalski, Jesse Lewis, James Mattioli, Grace McDonnell, Anne Marie Murphy, Emilie Parker, Jack Pinto, Noah Pozner, Caroline Previdi, Jessica Rekos, Avielle Richman, Lauren Rousseau, Mary Sherlach, Victoria Soto, Benjamin Wheeler, Allison N. Wyatt
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4
(c) 2012, J. Brady
"I say it how I see it and make no bones about it.”
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