Despicable Slaughter of the Innocent in Newtown, Connecticut

This weekend my husband and I spent time with my sister and brother-in-law who brought a group of kids from their church and a few in the community to see the show “Medieval Times” at Broadway on the Beach. Right after we finished having lunch, one of the patrons at the restaurant told us about the tragedy that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School this morning. As with any decent human being would feel, our hearts dropped and we began to pray for the victims and everyone affected by this unspeakable act.

As we talked about the kids who we were with this weekend, watching the excitement and awe in their faces, our hearts ached for the horrific news about the innocent lives lost at Sandy Hook Elementary School this morning. Whether at Columbine High School, Virginia Tech or the deadliest school massacre in U.S. history that occurred in 1927 at Bath Township Elementary School in Michigan, lives will never be the same.

“Why” is always the resounding word that comes after the initial shock of such a horrific occurrence. However, nothing dispels the fact that evil is evil and there is no proper way of putting it. You can’t label it, you can’t comprehend it and you can’t explain the perpetrator’s motives . We ask this day and all the days of our lives that we shall put on our whole armor of God, be diligent in our prayer life and strengthen our relationship with God! We can’t walk around in fear each day, but we must walk in faith and believe in our protection from The LORD.

We pray for God to grant encouragement, comfort and hope in each of the lives affected by this morning’s tragic events. These killing sprees must end. God’s power conquers the Devil’s powers. We have access to God’s powers or the Devil’s curse. It’s up to us to choose which one to relate to and embrace. As long as we live we may not ever be able to eradicate the presence of evil, but we have the ability to bring down and destroy it with the power we ask God to give us. 

The End of a 12-Year Run!

Well, we have seen the arrival of 12/12/12, which if some of you remember when Y2K arrived, there were vast predictions of the impeding “doomsday” scenario among many conversations around the world! A coworker of mine brought up an interesting point that made me reflect differently about number-related dates as we have witnessed over the course of the past 12 years. How interesting these comparisons are.

January 1, 2001 – 1/1/1

February 2, 2001 – 2/2/2

March 3, 2003 – 3/3/3

April 3, 2004 – 4/4/4

May 5, 2005 – 5/5/5

June 6, 2006 – 6/6/6 (Wonder if this day put the fear of God in some people’s hearts)

July 7, 2007 – 7/7/7

August 8, 2008 – 8/8/8

September 9, 2009 – 9/9/9

October 10, 2012 – 10/10/10

November 11, 2011 – 11/11/11

December 12, 2012 – 12/12/12

One thing is for certain, we will not see this type of occurrence again in our lifetime that would happen in 12 consecutive years. But wait, what about other similar numerical incidences during the last century? They only cover a scope of 9 years, but not successively. They were all 11 years apart!

September 9, 1999 – 9/9/99

August 8, 1988 – 8/8/88

July 7, 1977 – 7/7/77

June 6, 1966 – 6/6/66 (Bet this day scared the crap out of a few people)

May 5, 1955 – 5/5/55

April 4, 1944 – 4/4/44

March 3, 1933 – 3/3/33

February 2, 1922 – 2/2/22

January 1, 1911 – 1/1/11

Of course, we can continue to go back further into history to find numerical similarities among certain months, on certain days, in certain years. However, from 2001 to 2012, this is the only time in my lifetime where I will see a consecutive 12-year mono-numerical significance, which gave me an intuitive moment to pause. I was aware of our 12-year pattern of fixated numbers, but I never stopped to take all of this in!

Now this was certainly a “things that make you go hmmmm….moment!" Not quite the end of the world!