Tonight, before bed, our family prayed for the families affected by the mass murder in a church at Sutherland Springs, Texas, yesterday. What do you tell your children when something like this happens (or the running down of people in NYC the other day)...when they ask the 'why' questions, or when they express fear that this might happen again, or in our church or neighbourhood? Pious platitudes or mini-theology lectures will likely ring hollow in the imaginations of children, who have a huge capacity for putting themselves in another's situation. Plus, it is not bare truth that questioning children need, or questioning adults for that matter, so hard on the heels of an event like this. It is something more existential, more experiential, more relational that they, and we, need. They don't need to be reminded of the nature of the sovereignty of God so much as the nature of the God who is sovereign. I think it might be best to simply remind them that our hope, and the only real hope for a sinful and broken world, is in Jesus Christ, the 'suffering sovereign.'
John Piper reminds us of what kind of saviour we have placed our hope in here. I pray that those in Sutherland Springs experience Jesus' presence among them right now.
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