"Where's your God now?" the man shouted. He held a newspaper over his head. Giant bold letters announced the death of twenty children and six adults. The man wasn't shouting because he wanted to know, nor was he mourning the death of the twenty-six. He wasn't interested in the twenty-year-old who had killed them. His tirade had one purpose--to attack those who follow God.

No one answered the man. Most looked away or hurried past. A few stopped to watch the spectacle. Maybe they wanted to argue with him. More likely, they asked the same question.

Friday, December 14, 2012. Something horrible occurred in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. A young man, having already killed his mother, forced his way into a school and slaughtered adults and little children. When I got the news, I immediately thought of my children when they were that young and my grandson who will soon come into this world. I asked God, "Why?"

Such has occurred before, in my country and others, often far worse than in Sandy Hook. Nothing prepares us for the shock. But we need to be shocked. We need to be reminded there's evil in the world. It isn't simply how someone was raised, if he'd been abused as a child, or any lack of opportunities, education, or money. Evil exists, whether we want to admit it or not. Consider this:

The government strengthens the military under the guise of defense, providing an easier means to invade countries, reorganize governments, influence policies, and create new economic systems designed for dependence. The divide between rich and poor is deep. A relative few make all the decisions and action is taken to maintain that power, even to removing the means for others to defend themselves.

Elitism rules, not only politically, but also sociologically. Marriage is denigrated and sexual immorality promoted. For those with money, there's abortion on demand. God is mocked, religion attacked. Pleasure is worshiped. Freedom exists for those who are favored, restraints and controls for everyone else. And government is exalted as the source of all that is good and the only judge of right and wrong.

I'm not talking about America or any other country. This was the Roman-occupied world two thousand years ago. That world was filled with hatred of those who did not believe in God, anger from many who claimed they did, and division among the few who thought they followed Him. Those in power controlled everything, while men and women devoted to God were little more than slaves.

This was the world when God chose to walk among us as Jesus---a world of tyrants, murderers, thieves, liars, deceivers, betrayers, bigots, racists, and cynics---those He came to save. And when word got out Jesus had been born, all boys, two years old and under, in and around Bethlehem, were slaughtered.

Christmas is that season when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. It is a time of joy and rejoicing as we refocus on God. It is also a time to remember that real, tangible, headlines-creating evil exists in this world, evil that brings death and sorrow. And as we remember, we understand the miracle was not so much that God came as an innocent child, fully God and fully man, the promised Messiah and Savior of the world...but that He chose to come at all.

"Where's your God now?" He's with us.