My heart is heavy today. My prayers are longing prayers for peace.
I remember the day so well 13 years ago today that changed us all. My sister called me to tell me we were under attack as I was brushing my 3-year-old daughter’s hair for preschool. That little girl drives herself to school now. This year, she will choose which college she will attend.
That day, she was certainly old enough to walk into school on her own but I carried her anyway. I held her close as I whispered prayers. I wept into her hair as I grieved over the fact that she would not have a childhood free from war as mine had been.
As I walked away from her school, I looked into a cloudless blue sky to see all of the airplanes heading toward the airport. The skies were clearing of all air traffic. The world as I knew it was shutting down.
I placed a hand on stomach where my unborn son safely slept and wondered what kind of world he would know.
It turns out it was a world filled with more violence and war than I could have ever imagined. Afghanistan. Iraq. Boston. ISIS. In the past thirteen years, blood has flowed like a river and bombs have fallen like rain.
Today we look back and mourn but we also look forward and still wonder what the future holds. What comfort is there to find in the face of such terror and evil?
I believe the answer is found in Micah chapter 4 which begins with these words-
“In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established…”
Then, verse 3&4-
“He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken.”
Amen. Come quickly, sweet Prince of Peace.
