The news about the school shooting at the elementary school in Nashville today has been so hard. I’ve been wondering what I would say to all of those who are hurting. All those families who lost someone, who know a person who was killed. All the teachers and parents and first responders and pastors and — oh, gosh, all of us who keep realizing with a sinking feeling that we can’t ultimately protect ourselves and our loved ones from the terrible things that sometimes happen in this world.
We had this job here — to learn to love this earth and the people on it. To treat folks the way we would like to be treated. And it feels like that things have gotten away from us and our world is racing along towards disaster.
And here I am, awake in the night. Feeling afraid, alone, full of grief and bewildered about how we got to this place of brokenness.
We are held captive by the false idolatries of the Second Amendment, beliefs in conspiracy theories, a multimillion dollar industry of guns.
And where is the holy one tonight?
God is weeping in a hospital hallway where parents seek their injured or murdered children and loved ones.
God is holding a first responder overwhelmed by the scenes they saw today.
God is sitting beside the bed of every parent who lies awake trying to figure out how to keep their child safe as they go to school, the mall, the movie theatre.
God is reaching out to hold the heart and mind of the one so wounded that this horror gets acted out.
God holds the space between us as we numbly see the news, read the latest statistics.
Have mercy, dear creator of the universe. We are danger of tumbling into the abyss.
All the Wonders 