The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means "God with us." Matthew 1:23
It's hard for me (Ellie) not to get into the minds of the parents, the police officers, the children that survived such unspeakable horror and imagine what they are feeling......and an overwhelming heaviness and grief descends on me (as I'm sure it does countless others). As a parent it's excruciating to even fathom what those poor families are going through in the wake of the elementary school shooting in Newtown, CT. It doesn't matter that I don't know them or that they are thousands of miles away, they were innocent children....and I have children of my own. Yesterday when I saw the news, all I could say was "no, no, please God no".....and I cried. And my mom and I cried over the phone together. And then I cried out to God.
Not coincidentally, the word Immanuel keeps going through my mind and it's meaning "God is with us." It reminds me that He came to this earth in the form of a baby boy to be with us, to suffer with us. He knows grief. In fact, He knows it more than we could ever imagine. The story of the death of Lazarus in John 11 also comes to mind. When Jesus saw Mary (the sister of Lazarus) and the others weeping after Lazarus died, he was "deeply moved in spirit and troubled" and he wept with them. Even though He knew that He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, He couldn't bear to see them grieving. Oh, how He loves us.
While reflecting on this in the car I heard a song by Aaron Shust entitled "My Hope is in You." Sometimes the only thing we can do is cling to that hope.....hope found through a tiny baby boy in a manger. He was with us back then, and He is with us now.
Cling to His characteristics and His truths. Here are a few that stood out to me:
"The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love..." Psalm 103:8
"God is light, in Him there is no darkness at all" 1 John 1:5.
"Put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption." Psalm 130:7
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