The “Today” anchor opened up about “wrestling with God” over her mother’s “excruciating” possible abduction in a video for Good Shepherd New York church.

Savannah Guthrie admits ‘deep disappointment with God’ in Easter message amid mom Nancy’s disappearance

The "Today" anchor opened up about "wrestling with God" over her mother's "excruciating" possible abduction in a video for Good Shepherd New York church.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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April 5, 2026 5:12 p.m. ET

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Nancy Guthrie and Savannah Guthrie in 2015. Credit:

Don Arnold/WireImage

- Savannah Guthrie shared a powerful video message with the parish of the Good Shepherd New York church on Easter amid the search for her missing mother, Nancy Guthrie.

- "We celebrate today the promise of a new life that never ends in death," she said, but admitted to "moments of deep disappointment with God" as the search enters month two.

- Nancy was set to view Good Shepherd's livestream services on Feb. 1, but failed to show. She was first reported missing that day.

Savannah Guthrie has shared a powerful message about her struggle with faith amid the search for her missing mother, Nancy Guthrie.

"Easter is here. It is flowers and pastels and baby bunnies. It is sunshine and joy and hope. It is rebirth and second chances, and new life and fresh starts," the *Today *anchor began an Easter Sunday video message shared with Good Shepherd New York, her longtime church.

"We celebrate today the promise of a new life that never ends in death. But standing here today, I have to tell you: There are moments in which that promise seems irretrievably far away, when life itself seems far harder than death," Savannah continued, admitting to "moments of deep disappointment with God" and a "feeling of utter abandonment" as the search for her 84-year-old mother passes into its second month.

Savannah Guthrie tears up in an interview with Hoda Kotb on 'Today'.

Savannah is a longtime parishioner of Good Shepherd, which also counts her *Today *colleagues Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager among its masses. Nancy was set to watch Good Shepherd's widely viewed livestream services at a friend's house in Tuscon, Ariz. on Sunday, Feb. 1. Her failure to show for that engagement was one of the red flags that led to her being reported missing.

As that search has stretched from days to weeks to months, with very few promising new leads being overturned, Savannah continued to detail her struggle with faith.

"For most of us, there will come a time in our life when these feelings hold sway," she said in her video message. In those moments, "we are taught to take comfort in the fact that our friend, Jesus, in his short life, experienced every single emotion that we humans can feel."

But Savannah testified that her own feelings of grief have been so overwhelming: "I have questioned whether Jesus really ever experienced this particular wound that I feel. This grievous and uniquely cruel injury of not knowing, of uncertainty and confusion, and answers withheld. In those darkest moments, I've thought bitterly and perhaps irreverently that I have stumbled upon a feeling that Jesus did not know."

She wondered whether the Christian tradition's messiah ever "suffered this excruciating not knowing."

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Ultimately, Savannah told the Good Shepherd parish, "It isn't wrong to think such thoughts. To challenge our God with questions. God does not ask us to be stoics with standards of pain," or to shy away from "wrestling with God." Instead, she reasoned, "Our faith gives us a spiritual conviction that we will be reborn, that God will redeem this pain. That every tear will be wiped away, that our Easter is coming."

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Savannah stepped away from her *Today *duties shortly after her mother was declared missing. But she has remained on social media, sharing frequent updates on the case and calling on her 2 million followers to report anything that may be helpful to local law enforcement.

She sat down for her first full-length interview about the case with former *Today *colleague and friend Kotb on March 25, just days after the Pima County Sheriff's Department announced it would be turning to Nancy's Catalina Foothills neighbors for new leads.

"It's unbearable. And to think of what she went through. I wake up every night in the middle of the night, every night, and in the darkness, I imagine her terror. And it is unthinkable, but those thoughts demand to be thought," she said. "And I will not hide my face. She needs to come home now."

You can watch Savannah's Easter message to the Good Shepherd New York church at the 48:45 mark above.

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