Developing A Long View
The beauty of our world is tainted by the ugliness we see all around us. Headlines shout the carnage that man thrusts upon man. Several years ago Steve and I visited Israel.
We traveled to Tiberius, on the Sea of Galilee, and spent several days touring that area.
It was beautiful and peaceful—except for the reminder of trouble when we saw machine-gun-toting soldiers standing on street corners.
We also visited Jerusalem, staying in a lovely hotel within walking distance of many sites. The city bustled with activity as Jewish and Arab people came.
One night we walked the streets of a local shopping area and watched Jewish teenagers hanging out in a pizza shop and coffeehouses, much the same way kids all over the world congregate with friends.
A few months later, we learned that a suicide bomber blew apart the pizza shop in that area. We had been right there. Those laughing youths we saw might have been in the midst of the terror.
Then on September 11, 2001, terror hit America, sending waves of concern across a land that such attacks had not touched.
Battles rage. Cities are destroyed. People kill each other and do much of the terror in the name of God, or a god.
Where is our hope?
This verse from Revelation tells us. It declares that God himself will make everything new. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
We are now living under the old order. Satan infiltrates our world. Sin works its destruction. God is available to any who earnestly seek him, but many do not.
But we have a wonderful promise when the end of this world as we know it comes about. God will make everything fresh, untouched by sin, perfect.
I think that God gave this message to John and commanded him to write it down so that we would not lose hope.
When we become discouraged or afraid, we can fix our eyes ahead—develop a long view—and see that evil will not win out in the end.
God will one day unleash his power on all of the world and he will emerge the victor. In that, we can have great hope.
Knowing that evil’s power is limited, we can look past the present with all its harrowing images of oppression, war, and evil men.
We can place our hope in the promises of God, grieve for the troubles of the moment but raise our eyes and our hearts to the reality of an awesome God who will work all things to his good.
Father, our world seems so much more dangerous than it did a few years ago. Our eyes have witnessed the horror that man can do to man.
Please help us to keep hope alive by looking beyond the devastation to you. Thank you for your promises and the future we have waiting for us.