“This is what the LORD says: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more’” (Jeremiah 31:15).

Ancient words eerily capture the numbing headlines of a heartbroken nation—mothers, fathers sobbing on camera and off camera—as America (all over again) raises mournful wails for the gun-downed, lifeless forms of her children—“because they are no more.” 

Nineteen small sod mounds dotting the barren Texas shade—“because they are no more.”

“An enemy has done this,” Jesus was right (Matthew 13:28). He ought to know. For it was because of Him “Herod . . . gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under” (Matthew 2:16). And with that, the Christmas story was irreparably and forever pierced, rent by the wailing cries of the Bethlehem massacre's surviving victims. “Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more’” (Matthew 2:17-18).

“A voice is heard in Uvalde.”

But the story doesn’t end there.

Read further the ancient prophet: “This is what the LORD says: ‘Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for . . . they will return from the land of the enemy. So there is hope . . . ,' declares the LORD. ‘Your children will return to their own land’” (Jeremiah 31:16-17).

Did you think the Lord God of Heaven, who Himself once chided self-important adults for shooing the little ones away, “‘Let the little children come to Me,’” (Matthew 19:14)—did you think that God would allow the brutal AR-15 slaughter of nineteen Texas children be the terminus to their stories? Hardly! For there is a God in heaven, who—despite His enemy’s insanity-driven ravage of Creation—will have the last word for all our children. “[Your children] will return from the land of the enemy!” is the triumphant shout that rings within the covers of Holy Scripture. 

Thus Jesus’ promise: “‘Your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish’” (Matthew 18:14). Not forever. And not for long.

So through your tears, America, come to the only One who can save us now. Let the politicians count their votes and excuse their positions. In the end neither they nor their votes will matter. Because Bethlehem’s and Uvalde’s young will be returned by the One whose last word is for our slaughtered children, and for us: “‘Because I live, you shall live also’” (John 14:19).