May God Console You

Friday morning my view of the world

shattered.

Like so many Americans,

I sat in disbelief

as

the story unfolded.

How could that man

walk into that school

and

shoot those babies?

Because the story was breaking,

the accounting tended to be chaotic,

and

confusing.

I kept waiting for the reporters to say,

"Everyone is safe

but

the shooter"

They never did.

I don't have the answers as to why.

I don't have the answers about stopping it.

Every time I try to answer either of those,

I find more questions.

It is not simple.

I can only say,

God is not absent from our schools,

because we don't allow prayer in them anymore.

God has not abandoned America

because sin runs amok.

God has not left our side

because our nation,

as a nation,

does not seek His face.

As a friend of mine said,

those are our attributes, not God's.

 Since before Adam took that bite,

God gave us free will.

Free will,

that sticky wicket.

It helps us believe in God,

it helps us not believe in God.

It helps us choose the right path,

it helps us choose the dark path.

It is there when we walk past the beggar,

it is there when we give a sandwich to the hungry.

It is there when we walk away from a bad situation,

it is there when we land that punch because we're angry.

Free will.

It worked last Friday,

when a sick man,

barely an adult himself,

chose to take his mama's guns,

kill her,

and

shoot up a school.

Now my choice is,

do I abandon my belief in God

because of that one man's choice,

or

do I cling tighter than ever to Him?

I choose to cling tighter.

I don't have an easy answer,

I don't have an answer,

all I have is prayer.

"מייַ גאָט קאַנסאָול איר צווישן די אנדערע מאָרנערז פון ציון און ירושלים"

Ha'makom yenahem etkem betok she'ar avelia Tziyonvi Yershalyam 

May God console you among the other mourners of Zion and Jerusalem

and today

among the mourners in Newtown, CT.