Beauty in a Violent World

Everywhere I look there is beauty. Green. Life.  Beautiful green mountains and above me the sun setting below the mountains. This beauty takes my breath away every day. 

Everywhere I look there is beauty. Running. Laughing. Children living and growing and learning on this beautiful green mountain. And the beauty of it takes my breath away.

Have you ever just stopped and watched everything move and live around you? Right now I see two birds flying below me (I’m on a mountain remember) and hear kids voices and a dozen different birds chirping and bugs being bugs. There are two dogs laying next to me. One just finished slobbering all over my arm actually. I can see the river far below moving along and the air is cool and the ground moist from the rain earlier today. It’s beautiful. I feel very, very small. Because I am.

I also see pain a lot. It takes my breath away but in a very different way. More of a sharp pain in my side that makes it hard to breathe. Sometimes this beautiful place is very violent. There is abuse that happens that hurts people deep inside. I wanted to fix it and heal her wound as she whispered to me what happened all those years ago. That now all she wants to do is keep her own little ones safe. But sometimes even that isn’t possible. A vicious cycle that repeats itself. Little ones shouldn’t know that kind of fear and pain. What can I say to her? How can I comfort her?

Many times I don’t have answers. All I can do is lift up my voice and cry to a perfect King who loves us with a perfect love in the midst of brokenness and darkness. We are blinded. There is a Shepherd offering us perfect life and peace and so many times we prefer the darkness. We think we know better. 

The gospel is beautiful. But it is also violent. Jesus was slaughtered. Abused. He died. He knows. He understands. We are not alone in our pain. We have HOPE! A new life, a new love. We may not always perfectly understand but we can trust that what God has started, He will accomplish. 

The cross. Beautiful. Full of pain and violence. Death. But it doesn’t end there. Jesus didn’t just die for us... He rose again!!! He triumphed over death and sin so that we can live with Him! This is our comfort! The pain and violence in this world is fleeting because one day we will have eternal peace with our Savior! Praise God!!!