With troubling events in the world unfolding in front of children–like the tragic events in Charleston, South Carolina–Shawnelle Eliasen comforts her son:
“I’m troubled,” my 13-year-old son, Samuel, said. He took a seat on the stool in the kitchen. It’s a perching place for my boys. They sometimes sit and share while I cut vegetables or knead bread. The kitchen is a heart-wide-open sort of place.
“What’s on your mind?” I asked.
“The shooting in Charleston,” he said. “I keep thinking about it. I hurt for it. It doesn’t make sense.”
I stopped what I was doing and looked at my son. He was weighted. Pressed. The heaviness of hurt on shoulders still young and thin. I wasn’t sure of what to say. Words wouldn’t come. How does a mama explain that evil can be consuming and sometimes hatred steals human breath?
“I think that I understand what you’re feeling,” I said. “But I don’t understand how something like that could happen.”
Samuel looked down and scuffed the toe of his running shoe over ceramic tile.
We live in a hurting world. As God’s children, we ache for the brokenness.
I stood there wanting to speak but feeling my small reserve of wisdom had run dry. There was silence. Quiet. Then the Lord whispered to my spirit. He reminded me of Lazarus.
Jesus reached into death and He brought forth life.
The story is from John 11: When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Only Jesus can bring life from death. Life for saints whose earthly lives have been stolen–they live again. And life for a world heavy with the decay of sin.
In Him there is hope. He reaches into the darkest place.
READ MORE: 6 WAYS TO PRAY WHEN THERE ARE NO WORDS
Sam stayed in the kitchen with me for a long while. I wished that my boys lived in a world where there was only laughter and love and the warmth of sun on their shoulders. But we’re not there yet. So together we talked about hope in Jesus.
In this world.
In the realm of heaven.
In the world to come.
We talked about how needing Him is the deepest human condition. And then we prayed.
Thank you, Jesus, that when the world hurts, You are our hope. Amen.
