As suffering and death dominated the news out of Paris this past week, where did your thoughts and emotions take you? Many went to sadness and hurt for those harmed and their loved ones. Others to anger accompanied by a longing for swift and lethal justice on the perpetrators of evil. I think all of us sensed some level of fear and vulnerability that this could happen to us…maybe to me.

Truth be told, other than the mode of destruction and the capacity to report it, nothing in this week’s headlines is “new” at any level, anywhere on the planet. Such has been the trajectory of mankind’s life apart from God since the fall in the garden.

The cause of all the chaos is a combination of Satan’s futile attempts to destroy the work and glory of God, and sinners sinning. It’s a lethal combination that leads to a dead end of despair.

Thankfully, our hope and confidence is anchored on nothing more and nothing less than the Resurrected One, the Conquerer of Death, Jesus Christ our Lord. Herein one meets the God-Man, the righteous and merciful One promised of old, who in His life, death, burial and resurrection turns on its head the terror of suffering and death due us because of our sin, and replaces it with forgiveness, His righteousness, and life indestructible. How does He do this? He gifts it… to all who put their faith and hope in Him.

My prayer is that when we read or see the “world news”, our thoughts and emotions run quickly to the “good news”—yes, the gospel, for it is a sure and certain hope…the only hope, for us, and for the world.

With Thanksgiving,

Maridus Kinder

photo credit: pol sifter
photo license: Creative Commons 2.0