Pictures to scroll through. Just hit the "next" button if you dare. Picture after picture of devastation. People's lives turned upside down and futures unknown. Pain and suffering for the world to watch. I scroll through... how many more can I even look at ... and water fills my eyes.
The earth groans and so does my heart.
It isn't difficult to look back even a short distance and see in our "rear-view" memory the destruction from other such events. Other too-powerful waves and floods. Other quakes. And, wars... oh! the never-ending wars and evil crime committed daily. Just today I read a headline about a man convicted of multiple torture-related murders.
The earth groans and so does my heart.
My unbelieving friend spoke to me yesterday of our overuse of the planet. I don't disagree. Is this why we are seeing "more" tsunamis and earthquakes she wondered out loud. She spoke of the "earth groaning" without really knowing what she was saying... but, she too was groaning. And, so am I. How do you even begin to speak about such things?
Today, as I scroll through the pictures with pain, my heart doesn't ask, "Why?!", though. Not today. But, instead my heart groans, "When?". Lord, Jesus, When?...
When will You, Almighty Creator, Kind and Everlasting Father, ...when will this end? When will your justice roll down and your mercy fill the earth?
When will You, my Savior Jesus, my Lord, my loving Brother, ... when will you return on that white horse? When will You collect Your bride and wipe all our tears?
When will You, Holy Spirit, revive the dead and breathe into the rotting bones... when will You breath and call Home your Church?
When will You make all things new? When will the groaning end... and all things be made right? When, Father?
For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8:22)
Come, Lord Jesus, Come!