Posted in Special Thoughts of Mine

Every day I am hearing of more and more hearts breaking...as my own is.  Last week a teacher was shot and stabbed in her classroom (in a Catholic elementary school) right in front of her students by her estranged husband.  A few days ago a home burned to the ground with 2 young children inside.  Just today another home burned with 2 more young children inside, too.  Yesterday at church I learned of a dear young woman who took her 18-month old child to the doctor last week with croup, and then that precious child died on Friday.  So many children--lost to death, suffering emotional trauma from scenes they have witnessed in front of their very eyes--and mothers and fathers with their hearts wrenched because of their loss and suffering.

The Bible tells us the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, and it seems that he is working overtime in this region lately.  However, we can be assurred that while these babes may be gone from us here on earth, they are playing at the feet of Jesus.  While many children are suffering from the tragedies they have witnessed, they have Christian parents who are praying with them and for them, and our Lord will bring healing to their hearts and minds.  Rest assurred the community is rallying around these parents and children, offering their very best to them to help during their time of need and suffering. 

The children who witnessed the tragedy with their teacher have received teddy bears and handmade quilts to hold on to and snuggle with during the times when they just need to let loose and cry and vent.  They have received an outpouring of love and fellowship from their families, their loved ones, their church, their school, and their whole community.  The parents who have lost their babies will also receive the same outpouring of love and counselling.  This may seem small in some ways, but it isn't.  Because the love of others will enable us to remember the love our Saviour has for us, and will remind us to reach out to Him and allow Him to heal our pain. 

The teacher who was stabbed and shot?  She is recovering well, and became a grandmother on Saturday!  Praise God!  In the midst of tragedy, life does go on and new life begins.  Her husband took his own life that afternoon, but he also stabbed another woman who was close to him, and she is also recovering well, and I believe she is at home now.

We must keep our eyes on Jesus during these times of tragedy.  The life of Job comes to mind when I hear of these things--he lost all of his children, his home, his lands, his flocks--everything and everyone except his wife and himself.  His own body was under attack, and yet, he remained faithful to the Lord.  He kept his eyes on God and refused to turn away from Him, even though everyone tried to get him to.  His own wife told him to just curse God and die--and no, you don't want to know my opinion of her attitude at that point other than for me to say that she was not serving God nor her husband at that time in the way she should have been doing!

This world will not stand forever, and we know the days are numbered until the time when our Lord Jesus will return and catch up His church to be with Him.  This time is drawing nearer every day, and it is my belief that it will be very soon.  How we need to make sure we are ready!  We need to keep our lamps filled with spiritual oil--studying the Word and living with a dedication to Jesus that we've never had before!  I look around me at the rampant sin and degradation in this world and my heart breaks yet again.  How I wish I could just pack my bags and go all around the world telling folks about our Lord--ministering to them about the gospel of Jesus Christ and urging them in their walk with Him!  That isn't possible for me to physically do right at this moment (although we don't know what tomorrow might bring!), and so I am reaching out to the world through my blog here.  I pray it touches you and encourages you every day. 

I leave you this day with the picture given us of the New Jerusalem--where Jesus will reign after He defeats the devil and casts him into the bottomless pit--

But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.  The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it.  The Lamb is its light.  And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.  Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there).  And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.  But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.  And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.  In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.  The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.  They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.  There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light.  And they shall reign forever and ever.

                                      ~Revelation 21:22 - Revelation 22:5~

New King James Version

Hugs,

Cynthia Robin