Seven Years Later

There are some events that occour and you can remember exactly where you were standing when you heard about it. You can remember the very place you were, the very pictures from the TV, the way your heart sank when the reality set in.

When I first saw the pictures I thought, "There is no way that is really happening. . ." The picture of those towers has come to represent for me the fact that we live in a dying world. We can choose to focus our attention on the negative or we can pay close attention to how God moves through the pain.

I hear a lot of people ask the question, "Why do bad things happen?" I often times wonder: "how does God work good things into the messiness of our lives and this world?" The truth is, based upon what I see around us everyday, we do not deserve the love and grace God is so ready to give us. We are messy people, we fight, we sin, we can't get along.

Not that I don't understand that question. Surely I do. I get frustrated when I see cancer tear through the body of a healthy functional person. An untimely death makes me question why some live and some die. Yet, if I was truly to step back and look clearly at the situation on this earth, I can't help but recognize that God is in control. It rains on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. This earth, it is temporal, just like our bodies. I am convinced that if it weren't for God our messes would be bigger, our lives further out of control, and all would be hopeless.

Thank you Jesus for hope.

ae