I woke up this morning and began looking back over the year 2023, and unfortunately, February 24, 2022, dipped in, reminding me of the full-scale military invasion launched on Ukraine that had been building up since 2014.
I shook my head in sorrow.
October 7, 2023, stunned me. I wasn’t expecting to see babies, children, women, and men being slaughtered. Again, I saw another full-scale war break out. Some people were dancing on the streets; all I could do was cry at the loss.
I shook my head in sorrow.
Taking life is happening all over the earth, no land exempted. What did you want for Christmas? An automatic rifle or maybe a semi-automatic AR 15 or AK 47?
I shake my head in sorrow.
Nobody seems to be listening, not seeing, nobody seems to care, and no one seems to seek the Giver of Life, who gives the substance we cannot buy. Life. We can’t reproduce it, and it is slowly being snuffed out by us. Babies, children, women, and men, young and old, are being abused and killed all around the world.
I shake my head in sorrow.
Strangely, guns are the most desired toys on Christmas lists. Where is the brotherly love?
I shake my head, and I cry.
I’ve discovered that mercy and grace are not available in the accumulation of things we purchase, or by buying as many weapons as we can afford, or under the governmental rule in the particular country we live in, but on the rock bed of hope. So, I lifted my head and looked toward Heaven.
LORD, WHAT DO I LOOK FOR? MY HOPE IS IN YOU.
I hope you have a safe crossing over into 2024.
Shalom shalom,
Pat Garcia
*Adaptation of Psalm 39:7, NIV 2011, ZONDERVAN By Pat Garcia