hope

I meet two people today. One an elderly women, unassuming with a warm smile and kind eyes. I quickly picked up from her accent that she was German. In fact she had lived in Düsseldorf during the bombings in world war two. She has seen atrocities and pain that are unimaginable. Yet she smiled and she laughed, she was healed. The other individual an Armenian man. This man told me stories about how his grandmother had to run and leave children behind to survive the killings that were happening all around her in Turkey. Yet he too was healed and held no resentment.

These stories gave me hope, that even in the midst of darkness light can break thru. These stories troubled me, why in America are we more focused on world trade and partnerships and our interests rather then truth and reconciliation? Why is American news so egocentric on the American needs (which by the way for most are not needs but wants)? Could capitalism slowly be killing us and how is it any less corrupt then other governmental systems when we make decisions based on allegiance and strategy and not what is right and what is wrong. But these two people showed me the power of hope, that even when atrocities happen and when injustice occurs that God can restore and that he involves us in his project, project humanity.