My last devotion was about sharing “treasure” with my 8-year-old grandson. The same day I posted that I heard the gut-wrenching news of 8-, 9- and 10-year-old children being gunned down in their school here in my home state. I literally felt sick to my stomach. My wife asked through her tears, “Who does that to children?”

Those who question the reality of sin and evil don’t have to wait long to see it. It constantly rears its ugly head. Too many want to stick their own heads in the sand and try to ignore it, but evil has a way of making itself known.

It has been that way since the first disobedience in the Garden of Eden, what we often call “The Fall.”  It has intensified ever since then. Just before the God sent the Flood, we read this:

⁵The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. ⁶The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. ⁷So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” ⁸But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Genesis 6:5–8 (NIV84)

God would have been justified in wiping out everyone. It was deserved. But in His mercy He spared Noah and his family, along with animals to repopulate the earth. The irony is that because man was spared, sin continued. And it increased. Ever heard of Sodom and Gomorrah? We are still living with it today.

A story like the one we heard yesterday reminds us of just how terrible and pervasive sin is. That is precisely why Jesus came. God has always known how horrible our disobedience is and the devastating consequences it brings. Jesus came for that reason, to bear that entire weight on Himself, the burden of all sin, when He hung on Golgotha’s cross. He paid for every sin. Including that Uvalde gunman’s misdeed yesterday. And also every grievous act you have thought, said and done.

God so loved the world. Yes, there is Good News, especially for times like this. God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. The victims who believed this are now with Jesus. The survivors will find comfort in this promise to guide them through their grief and terrible loss. It is the only answer we have, but it is also the only answer we need.

The same Jesus who wept over the death of His friend Lazarus is the one who shared these words with us all:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, have mercy.