03/13/2020
Imagine you are attending the wedding of a family member.
It is an event that you and your extended family have planned and looked forward to for months. Everyone in your family bought new clothes and saved their money for special gifts for the newlyweds.
Everyone you know is attending the wedding. There is dancing and celebrating. Everyone is enjoying a feast that only gets prepared only at times like this...
And then suddenly, the unthinkable happens, an explosion in the center of the activities... Even though you can barely comprehend what has happened you race from family member to family member to check whether they are injured or not.
You see your father, obviously injured, possibly fatally, as blood pours from an open chest wound. Your uncle, your father's brother is obviously dead, as is his wife next to him.
You have never seen such carnage. Then you hear your young cousins screaming, in fear or in pain you have no idea which. Their cries pierce the smoke and dust that fill the air.
You hear one person screaming as they search for their spouse. Another as they search for a small child... this is only a scene that the devil could conjure up. In the end, 10 people are killed, and dozens more are injured.
What could the cause of such terror be? Who would attack a wedding?
Imagine, that you discover the wedding you were attending was attacked, by a drone, because your father and your uncle were both considered "terrorists". They had been accused of killing "innocent" people in a place you had never been or heard of.
Imagine, that you discover your father, your uncle, two of your aunts and four cousins younger than you, as well as the priest presiding over the ceremony and his son, have been killed, by a drone, to retaliate for the killing of "innocent" people.
Imagine, how confusing this must be to process...Imagine, how this would affect your feelings toward those who killed so many "innocent" members of your family...
Imagine, how angry you would be...Imagine, how you would want to retaliate...
Imagine, the hatred you would feel...Imagine, the feeling when you hear the "innocent" dead are "collateral damage".
Not intended victims of the attack, but surely deserving of death because they have chosen to associate with such people as your father and your uncle.
Imagine...
Jesus commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves and to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
If we will not take a step back from our safe American lifestyle and consider how our military actions around the world reflect on our "faith" and commitment to "democracy", we may find ourselves neither safe nor living in a democracy.
We may find ourselves living in fear of the next retaliatory attack...blaming others for the hatred and death we have created.
Jesus is a blessing to all nations...He alone is the Prince of Peace. Following HIm is the only way we will experience peace... Learning to love our neighbor as ourself is the only way we will break the cycle of violence and death...
