Making Sense of Senseless

It’s so heartbreaking.

“Twenty schoolchildren [between 5 to 10 years old] were slaughtered by a heavily armed gunman who opened fire at a suburban elementary school in Connecticut on Friday [December 14, 2012], ultimately killing at least 27 people including himself in the one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history.” (Source: Reuters)

From Yahoo! News
US President Barack Obama cried while addressing the nation. “They had their entire lives ahead of them—birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping children fulfill their dreams... I react not as a president, but as anyone else would -- as a parent.” (The Atlantic Wire) 

From The Atlantic Wire
Then, on my Twitter feed, I saw the latest body count wrought by Typhoon Pablo according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). “The death toll from typhoon ‘Pablo’ (international codename ‘Bopha’) has reached 955, with 841 still missing,… NDRRMC Executive Director Benito Ramos… fears that the number of missing victims in typhoon-hit areas in Mindanao would still add to the total number of casualties.” (http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/)

From ABS-CBN News
I’m at a loss with words. I could not even imagine the overwhelming grief the people in Newton and in Southern Mindanao are experiencing right now. I’m even afraid that the coming Christmas would drive sorrow deeper in their hearts. I would not even dare to explain why it happened. I would not try at all to second-guess God’s purpose in all of these. No words would soothe the hurt. It would not ease the pain. I keep on repeating in my heart the song, “God is too wise to be mistaken. God is too good to be unkind. So when you don’t understand, when you don’t see His plan, when you can't trace His hand, trust His heart.” (From “Trust His Heart” by Bobbie Mason) But, to be candid, I could not make sense of these seemingly senseless deaths. Yes, I don’t understand. I don’t see His plan. I can’t trace His hand. And I really struggle in trusting God’s heart at the moment. I believe though He is not condemning us for feeling that way. He created us with beating, bleeding hearts. I recall the words Philip Yancey wrote in one of his books, “Where is God when it hurts? He is in you, the one hurting, not in it, the thing that hurts.”

Somehow, I feel that God feels our hearts. He has a heart, too.

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