broken.

This has been a tragic week. Reports of two senseless acts of violence that left multiple people dead, families without loved ones and countless people confused and searching for the answer to the question, "why?"

Portland faced a shooting at the Clackamas Town Center that took the lives of two people and the gunman and left a city in confusion. Today in Connecticut, possibly up to 20 kids lost their lives at an elementary school when a man opened fired there with what one report said must have been "hundreds of rounds."

The New York Times coverage described the kids outside as the situation was being handled as "visibly upset." They win for understatement of the year.

Christmas is when we celebrate Emmanuel - God with us. A child came to the world in a story we've all heard in church or at least in the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. People - then and now - were and are searching for a Savior to rescue us from a lost and broken world.

And He has come.
But it's not the way we imagine. It wasn't what Israel was hoping for in their Messiah either. He didn't come and conquer the terrorizing reign of the Romans. And He doesn't come today in a blaze of glory, keeping every bad thing from ever happening even though we wish He would.

He came as a child. Grew up a carpenter and died on a cross where we now decide whether to believe that He is who He said He is. We put our faith in Him - not as Superman who rushes in to save the day when things go wrong, but as a doctor who has ultimately saved us from the disease of sin.

So today, we mourn. We are confused. And we hurt for families that we may have never met.
But at the end of it, we still trust that God is still who He says He is - Creator and Savior of the world. He's big enough for our questions, our doubts, our arguments and, today, our confusion and hurt.