I Don't Know

Many of us are trying to make sense of the recent school shooting in Connecticut. Seeing the images of the children and parents affected is heartbreaking. The pain the whole community is experiencing is unimaginable. As a mom, sending my kids to school the Monday morning after the horrific events happened was fear-inducing. At work that morning, my phone rang and I saw my daughter’s middle school on the call display and my heart stopped as the news images filled my head. Thankfully, there was no emergency. We have all been deeply affected and we are grasping for answers to the big question: Why would God allow that kind of suffering to happen?

We are looking to politicians, denominational leaders and even celebrities to make statements about the causes and reasons leading up to this tragedy. We have heard about mental illness, gun control, the moral decay of our society, the lack of prayer in schools. Surely there must be someone or something on which to lay the blame. I have given a lot of thought to all the factors and heard all the arguments. I’ve come up with this answer: I don’t know. Wouldn’t pretend to know. Don’t have the first or faintest clue how God could allow this to happen.

Can I be okay with I don’t know? Is that a cop-out? It would certainly be easier to point fingers and be provided with a scapegoat. Sometimes pride can keep us from admitting that we don’t have it all figured out. Here are some thoughts I’ve been hanging onto in the midst of wrestling through the questions.

I don’t know means that God is God and I am not.

I don’t know means that my human mind cannot “fathom the mysteries of God” or “probe the limits of the Almighty” (Job 11:7)

I don’t know means that as the heavens are higher than the earth, God’s ways are not my ways…His thoughts are not my thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).

I don’t know means that even when I can’t see how this situation could possibly be redeemed, the Redeemer of mankind can.

I don’t know means that even though I am not acquainted with the suffering being endured, the Man of sorrows is (Isaiah 53:3).

Some day all things will be made right. Every tear will be wiped away. Every question will be answered.

But not yet…

Brenda E.