Holy God:
As we bask in the glow of the holiday season, our hearts our heavy because of an unspeakable crime committed in our nation against precious children. We cannot comprehend the evil we have seen, and our hearts go out to those who will spend the rest of their lives bearing the emotional scars of that horrific day.
We remember that the Christ child came to a world filled with evil and violence. He himself was barely spared from a massacre of innocent children. The Christmas story we have heard all of our lives is fully aware of the kind of world we live in and how desperately we need a savior.
Lord, be with the people of Newtown in a special way today. Let them know the embrace of the people of God all around the world who are praying for them today. We thank you for brave teachers, law enforcement, and other heroes who responded, and others who are even now filling that dark place with light. We thank you for our sister congregation next to the school, and all the congregations of Newtown, already doing what we do, battling the hatred and hurt of their world with a testimony of the love of God expressed in tangible ways to those who have been crushed by the earth's evil ways.
We, too, believe your Gospel. We believe that you have come to us to show us that your are always with us. We believe that your presence with us is most gloriously demonstrated when it is most desperately needed. For we, too, know what it is to be crushed and yet comforted in affliction. We, too, are witnesses that the coming of the Christ child truly made a difference and continues to make a difference. In him, we saw light, and that light dispels the darkness. It destroys the work of the evil one through the power of love.
So while we grieve and while we are shocked, we are not dismayed. Help us, holy God, to love more vigilantly.
O come, O come, Emmanuel.
Amen.
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