Christmas Tragedy

It just seems beyond comprehension — how can someone open fire on innocent children? Last week we saw evil unmask its evil face, and a nation is left searching for answers.  I had some myself:

Couldn’t God have stopped that man? Couldn’t God have made those children stay home from school that day? Couldn’t He have fired that teacher the previous year so that an entire class of children would have been spared? There were a million ways I could think to intervene.

But He didn’t.

I do believe that we are unaware of all the myriad ways that God graciously holds back evil on a daily basis. If Satan were unleashed, if God removed His sovereign hand, truly all hell would break loose. But for the most part, He shows the world immeasurable grace in that events like these are unusual.

But still, how on earth can this be part of God’s plan?

Strangely enough, the day that the shooting took place, I read about another horrific massacre of innocent children. In fact, it was much more widespread, probably hundreds if not thousands of children killed.

I ashamed to confess I read over it without much thought. Whereas the Sandy Hook tragedy brought me to tears and had me glued to the news and praying all day for the families affected, I read this other horrific story with hardly a pause. Do you know where I read it?

In the Christmas Story.

I read it in the Bible. Matthew 2. Right smack dab in the middle of the glorious Christmas story, the one we read to our children every single year, there lies a paragraph that should give us pause.

“Then Herod … became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem, and in all that region who were two years old or under.” Matthew 2:16

Can you imagine how horrific this is? How on earth is this happening right in the middle of God’s glorious rescue mission? Why would He allow this right in the midst of the most beautiful story ever told? It’s smearing blood across the beautiful portrait He’s painting.

And it, all of it, was in order to fulfill His eternal purpose.

Because Herod was out to kill Jesus, his parents took Him to Egypt. “This was to fulfill what the Lord has spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” He had them flee so that in the end everyone would see that Jesus was God’s Son. And in the midst of the horrific slaughter, we read,

“Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted because they are no more.” (vv.17-18)

Again, God used this horrific tragedy to fulfill prophecy and His eternal purpose.  After Herod died, Archelaus reigned, and Joseph and Mary were able to return, but withdrew to a city called Nazareth, “that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: “He shall be called a Nazarene.” (v. 23)

Not one, not two, but THREE major Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled concerning Jesus in the midst of this horrific event. Now, not a single one of those dear Mamas would have known this truth, as she wept aloud day after day and grieved the death of her precious baby boy. She would receive no comfort from this, the same way that no Sandy Hook parents want to hear about the Great and Glorious plan that God is working through the murder of their children.

But, no matter who wild we are in pain, and no matter how much we don’t understand, we can look at the Christmas Tragedy and see an All-Powerful, All-Loving God, weaving the course of history into a drama like none other.

I have no doubt that He WILL, in the end, remove the veil from our eyes and let us see the course of History through His eyes. He will right every wrong, wipe every tear, and, I believe, when we see how all things were woven together for His purpose, our good, and His glory, we will break into applause, jump up and down in celebration, and fall on our faces to worship the One True King.

“Therefore, comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thess 4:18)

Thanks for reading.