Questions About the Shooting in Newtown, Connecticut

First, I saw the status updates on FB about a shooting in Connecticut. So I started to run a search in Google and found this news about the shooting in CT. A 20-year old, a young man, opened fire in one of the sections of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and shot children and some adults leaving 20 children and 6 adults dead. This shooting is said to be the worst among the reported incidents in the US and I truly agree especially because small, innocent children were most of the victims.

Photo By ADREES LATIF/REUTERS

Being a father of an elementary student I feel horrified and indignant about what happened. Parents in their area were surprised with what happened especially because they were confident that their town was a very safe place. 

This incident makes us ask questions like, “How could someone do that to innocent children?” or “What would drive someone to do something like that?”
I do not mean to oversimplify things, but what I consider to be the life manual, the Bible, says that “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. ” (Romans 3:10-12) and “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” (Matthew 15:19). The evil that we are all capable of is more than drinking alcoholic beverages, smoking oliva cigars or gambling. It’s much worse.

The evil around us is caused by the evil inside us – that nature to do evil is what the Bible says our sin nature. 

This is a sad truth - to know that in the heart of any person, including me and you, has a capability and a nature to do any evil thing. Yes, we are all fully capable of doing evil things that we can’t imagine because it is part of our nature – we were all born sinners. And we are all sinners before the holy God.

But a great reminder and a great source of hope for all of us is this season of Christmas – that more than 2,000 years ago a child was born and that child was to be the Savior of the world – He was given the name Jesus because He was to save His people from their sins. And He did, after living a sinless life and becoming the only acceptable sacrifice for our sins. 

Now this does not mean that evil will end in our world because there are still people who choose not to believe. And the incident in the town of Newtown, Connecticut is a very sad example of how we are very much affected by the evil choices that people around us make. So take this time to offer a short prayer for the families affected by this tragedy.