Grief and Horror

Mass shootings in El Paso and Ackron, Ohio, have once again left this nation reeling in shock and grief.  What has happened to us?

I am instantly reminded of Jeremiah 9.  When Jesus told the women of Jerusalem who were weeping over him, "Weep not for me, but for yourselves and your children," He was referring to the forthcoming destruction of Jerusalem, but His words immediately recall also the words of the prophet:

Call for the wailing women to come: 
send for the most skillful of them.
Let them come quickly and wail over us
till our eyes overflow with tears 
and water streams from our eyelids.....

Now, O women, hear the word of the Lord;
open your ears to the words of his mouth.
Teach your daughters how to wail;
teach one another a lament.
Death has climbed in through our windows
and has entered our fortresses;
it has cut off the children from the streets
and the young men from the public squares.

Say, "This is what the Lord declares:

'The dead bodies of men will lie
like refuse on the open field,
like cut grain behind the reaper,
with no one to gather them.'"

If we want to know the reason for our grief, the Lord tells us:  It is because they have abandoned my law...They have not obeyed me or my law (Jer. 9:13).  We have desired to go our own way; we wanted to be a godless nation, following our own laws--- and so we have!  This is the result.  Now the NRA tells us we all need our own assault rifles for protection.  Where does it end?