We joke, we laugh, we speculate…but…

“Will you come with me to the mountains?
It will hurt at first, until your feet are hardened.
Reality is harsh to the feet of shadows.
But will you come?”
C.S. Lewis

(the blooming quince / Julie Cook / 2020)

I can’t say how this will all play out…how it will all end.

I think, however, I can speak for all of us in saying that we beg that it end.

We laugh at those online videos, those memes shared…
because we know that misery loves company.

We try so desperately to make light while trying so hard to laugh in our
seemingly unified endless misery.

Yet throughout all of this we must remember…
there are those who have suffered.

Those who have…
Suffered the loss of income.
Suffered the loss of livelihood.
Suffered the loss of stability.
Suffered the loss of wellbeing.
Suffered the loss of health.
Suffered the loss of life.

Let us keep in our prayers and hearts those who have lost…

Now when Jesus saw the crowds,
he went up on a mountainside and sat down.
His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.

The Beatitudes
He said:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people insult you,
persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven,
for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:1-12

wrath vs iniquity

“God is holy and He has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe.”
A.W.Tozer

(a crisp February sky / Troup Co, GA / Julie Cook / 2016)

When He arises to put down iniquity and save the world from irreparable moral collapse, He is said to be angry. Every wrathful judgement in history of the world has been a holy act of preservation. The holiness of God, the wrath of God, and the health of the creation are inseparably untied. God’s wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades and destroys. He hates iniquity as a mother hates the polio that takes the life of her child”
A.W. Tozer

With a simple sweeping scan of humankinds’ landscape, the general conclusion is one of deep concern.
The health and wellbeing of mankind seems, at the present time, most dire and even quite grim.
Spiraling and spinning out of control…tis the current condition.
Helplessness the common feeling …

Yet God neither sleeps nor slumbers.
A day of reckoning rests along the horizon
His holy wrath verses man’s depravity and iniquity
The health and wellness of all Creation demands His attention
as it shall no longer wait…

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Romans 1:18-20