In the aftermath of recent
horrors visited upon our country, there is a temptation to fear, to distrust, even to hate
people who don’t look like us, who don’t speak the same language, who
differently process information about the world.
And it’s not just foreigners who drive airplanes into tall
buildings that foster anxiety amongst us.
It’s also the protester outside our church building on Sunday
morning. It’s the stranger who rings our doorbell selling magazine subscriptions.
It’s the rough-looking guy wearing the stocking cap at the Qwik-Trip.
What we don’t know and what we don’t understand, we often
fear.
"Don’t be afraid," Jesus said. "Love one another as
I have loved you."
Scripture reflections for our devotional booklet this year have been
selected because they remind us that God the Father loves all of his creation, not just
selected parts of it, and that he weeps to see man’s inhumanity to man, wherever it
may occur.
We weep with God. So many have died, so many lives have been broken.
Yet we will rejoice.
We will rejoice because there is hope. There is always hope in Christ,
whose life, death, and resurrection gives us the blessed assurance of God’s presence
with us.
Rejoice! Be not afraid.
And let us love one another as God has first loved us.
