Prowling around...looking for someone to devour

I watched the video from the security cameras at the Covenant School in Nashville, TN where another tragic shooting took place this week.  The shooter took the lives of precious, innocent children who didn't have anything to do with whatever demons were in this person's head.  The shooter also took the lives of adults, equally innocent...

The video shows the moment the perpetrator shoots the glass doors of the school from the outside.  The view of glass exploding on the impact and shattering is mind boggling, but soon we see the perpetrator entering through the holes on the doors, and proceeding to walk the hallways.  That's when the sinister nature of the events begins to truly unfold.  

It is impossible not to sense the eerie feelings as we watch the shooter calmly walk up and down the hallways of the school, going into what looked like the main office and coming back out into the hallway again, rifle in hand, ready to shot at the first sight of life.  The last part of the video shows the shooter walking down a long hallway until it disappears from sight in the distance.

There's no actual shooting in the video...just the calculated calmness of a person prowling around...looking for someone to devour.

It felt like evil was there.  It felt like the enemy was in charge.  The images gave me a vivid representation of what Peter meant when he wrote,

Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5: 8b

This verse has such an ominous feel to it.  It always gives me the creeps.  It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up just by reading it.  Unfortunately, the verse came to life in a horrific way in the events at the Covenant School. This is not the first time these types of incidents have happened, as we all know, but it is certainly the first time I had seen the shooter in the school roaming the hallways, stalking their victims...It is an entirely different and deeply disturbing experience to see that.  I cried watching it.  I cried watching the school, the beautifully decorated bulletin boards, the classrooms, the lockers, the backpacks, all the surroundings that are supposed to be safe for our children to go and dream about their futures...being desecrated...defiled by pure evil...

What is left for us to do?

Peter says, we must be "alert and of sober mind" since these occurrences are and will continue to happen all throughout the world.  But he also gives us hope.  And it is to that hope that we have to hold on to with all we've got.  We have to hang on to the hope that tells us that,

...the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5: 10

Dear Lord, please help us to trust You and to hang on to the hope that You bring.  Help us as we travel through this valley of darkness and sorrow, that we may endure the suffering for a little while, knowing You are with us and that at the end, we will be glorified.  We overcome, because You have overcome.  In Your hands we place our lives.  Amen.