response

my heart is so heavy & so deeply sad for the families who have lost the 20 sons & daughters in connecticut. i know the loss they are feeling in our loss of our caroline. i don't know their sadness completely because we only knew caroline's kicks & big movements as she grew in my belly. we didn't know her voice, we don't have pictures of her birthdays & videos of her laugh. i cannot even begin to imagine what these moms, dads, sisters, brothers are feeling as they miss their little ones. 

in the midst of grief it feels so heavy, like you can't breathe, like there is no hope & apart from Christ there is no hope. but there is joy to come. He will turn weeping into laughter again. & He is good & He is so so faithful! & these little ones are with our Savior! they are worshipping Him & free of pain. their bodies are whole & they will know the cares of this world no longer.

Father, i ask that You would be glorified in Your sovereignty. i ask that many would come to know You through this tragedy. i don't understand Your ways & at times that makes me fearful because i worry about what could happen next, but i rest in knowing that NOTHING is outside of Your hands & purpose. bring Your indescribable peace to these families even now. give them rest tonight. guard them from the enemy's lies, guard them from fear, guard them from anger & blaming You. there is none like You & we rejoice in Your goodness. be glorified! may Your gospel be known through this sin & evil. may many come to Christ in repentance. & in this Christmas season i pray that our gaze would be fixed on You again.

in Your name, Father, amen.

please listen to this amazing response by Dr. Mohler! (it's about 30 minutes long & so good! there are many helpful links included on that website as well.)

he addresses all the questions we are asking about this tragedy with scripture. 

he also talks to a pastor that is in connecticut ministering to the families that have lost their children.

also a very good article addressing if infants go to heaven.

"John Newton, the great minister who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace was certain of this truth. He wrote to close friends who had lost a young child: 'I hope you are both well reconciled to the death of your child. I cannot be sorry for the death of infants. How many storms do they escape! Nor can I doubt, in my private judgment, that they are included in the election of grace.' "

"One of the most eloquent and powerful expressions of this understanding of infant salvation came from the heart of Charles Spurgeon. Preaching to his own congregation, Spurgeon consoled grieving parents: 'Now, let every mother and father here present know assuredly that it is well with the child, if God hath taken it away from you in its infant days.' Spurgeon turned this conviction into an evangelistic call. 'Many of you are parents who have children in heaven. Is it not a desirable thing that you should go there, too? He continued: 'Mother, unconverted mother, from the battlements of heaven your child beckons you to Paradise. Father, ungodly, impenitent father, the little eyes that once looked joyously on you, look down upon you now, and the lips which scarcely learned to call you father, ere they were sealed by the silence of death, may be heard as with a still small voice, saying to you this morning, Father, must we be forever divided by the great gulf which no man can pass? Doth not nature itself put a sort of longing in your soul that you may be bound in the bundle of life with your own children?' "

 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort."

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

al