When Children Suffer. And Tornadoes Sweep Through Our Lives.

They say, “It was like a serpent.”  The way that tornado, twisted and turned through Moore that day.

They say, “One was standing.  Another, gone missing.”  And there is no rhyme, no reason to it all.

I watch.  Children clinging to, their parents. On this fixed screen before me.

And yet, how many more are missing?

Such an epidemic.  Epidemic of lost children.  Devouring our nation.

I see pictures on Facebook.  Of newborn.  With scissor holes, in the back of their heads.  Killed intentionally. At abortion clinics.

From those who think, the power of life and death is in their hands….not God’s.

And I gasp at the thought that such audaciousness, really happens.

Yet, if I am honest.  Even I turn away.  Do nothing.  Just grimes in disgust.   Pretending tragedy doesn’t exist.  Because it’s easier that way.

I talk to my teenager.  Trying to recall a day that so much evil spread through people….when I was his age.  But I couldn’t think of one hurricane.  Storm.  Tornado.  School shooting. Bomb blowing at the finish line.

Realizing sufferings are common in his day….almost “normal” to his psyche.

Still worse.  Sandy Hook.  There is just no excuse.  No logic, apart from evil…why anyone would hurt children.

And why is it ever more that children are dying?  Could it be that even Satan knows the call on the least of these.  The place of children, in the kingdom of God.  Does even he fear?  A generation, pure?  The child-like one, un-defiled, fervently pursuing the living God?

Do we almost become immune to death?  To tragedy?  To sin overtaking us….like the serpent storm, weaseling it’s way through a community?

Is it easier to turn away?  Flick the channel?  Click off of Facebook? Look away from the reality that evil is present in today’s world?

Who will fight for the children?  If the enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy….Who are those that will stand up and plead the cause of the innocent child….the orphan?

Still, I want to be a child saver.  Not an ignorant blind person hiding from the reality that children die daily around us….and we don’t even see them.

I want to resist that serpent slithering, like a tornado through my society wildly….

Not in my own strength.  But by gathering with sisters near me.  In prayer.  Seeking God fervently that He would use us….to be His hope for a nation hurting.  The voice for the lost.  Hands used solely for His purposes.

I don’t want to just sit.  Watching.  Grieving for what’s been lost.  I want to give back.  Help restore.  Be His healing to those around me suffering loss.

And if storms, are thwarted by prayer.  Humbling surrendering, the hope of “life” in this season…

Then, God use me.  God use me.

And while the enemy may slither through this nation with his hand of death….

I commit.  Right now.  I commit.  To being more than a breathe of hope.  More
than a writer, grumbling about how awful death among children is…

I want to stand.  By His side. In my weakness. Petitioning the God who resurrects. Who stops storms with His declaration of, “Be still”.  Yes, I want to kneel.  Shed tears.  Lift up.  And hold dear in my heart.  Those families.  Those needing…a peace that surpasses any human understanding.

Yes, need we just sit back and watch?  Immune to the fact that the enemy is after our children?  Can we do more?  Can we pray?

Yes, I will never be content that one child is gone.  I will never accept that Satan is greater than a God, who made us.…

His children.

(Linking with Tracy, Proverbs 31)