I’m writing during our recent winter storm. It’s snowy and beautiful outside. The giant pine tree boughs are laden with white fluff. Suddenly, the weight is too much and the mounds of snow flutter to the ground. This white mask encases everything in my world and a bluish-gray mist hovers over the mountainous horizon. The countryside resembles Narnia envisioned through the wardrobe—always winter but never Christmas. Such a scene urges me to cry out. Where are you Aslan? We need you now.
Are we not in a time of desperate waiting for Aslan to return? What are we, sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, to do in the meantime as our world falls into chaos?
While contemplating the answer to this timeless question, I am reminded of the words of Jesus in Matthew 25. He tells us how to conduct our lives in the aching chasm between His ascension and the Second Coming.
Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you visited me . . . truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
Matthew 25:34-36, 40 NIV
Jesus praises kindness and mercy offered in abundance and without reservation. This kind of sacrificial love should be our response in times of trouble. But following this directive is as difficult now as it was two thousand years ago.
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit blessing.
1 Peter 3:9 NIV
At this moment, I sit in peace, insulated by this winter storm from the outside world. A fire crackles in the hearth and a soft melody tinkles from the wind chime on the front porch. But in other places on the planet, wars rage, hunger gnaws in children’s bellies, and innocents die in the aftermath of evil. What could one person do to possibly make a difference?
In this quiet moment, God speaks to my heart. Anger begets more anger. Even righteous indignation sparks a fire not easily quenched. Sacrificial love is the only answer for our fallen world.
Jesus showed us the way to live as He walked toward the cross. He didn’t resist the insults but forgave His enemies even as they murdered Him. Then two millennia later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr tried to emulate the “Jesus Way” and he was murdered too. Yet in his death, hearts have changed little by little.
Certainly, racism still exists and raises its ugly head again and again when we least expect it. However, American society isn’t like it was when I was a child in the 1960’s. I remember my parents had one Black couple they called friends back then. We didn’t know others to befriend. The separation of races was a stark and imposing wall between us. But now boundaries are crumbling and I have many friends from different cultures and races. Yet, where there is change, there still is much to do and much to heal. Where are you Aslan? We need you now.
Injustice is rampant and it should ignite righteous anger if we haven’t become numb to the visuals we see every day in the news and on social media. But resist using this energy to spread more anger and hate. Use your passion for good. Channel it through love by reaching over the boundaries Satan erects to separate us from those who look and think differently than ourselves. We are more alike than the evil one would lead us to believe.
A new friend and local storyteller, Connie Regan-Blake, said during a recent Christmas event, “It’s difficult to hate someone when you know their story.” God has shown me the truth of this statement over the years by pairing me with people who have maddened me in one way or another. More times than I would like to admit, I’ve found ways to avoid them rather than listen to their individual stories. But when I resisted the temptation to add more stones to the walls already separating us, miracles happened and boundaries crumbled. Mutual understanding became the steppingstone to friendships I never imagined.
If any wisdom comes with age, these concepts I hold dear from years of living through troubled times. Before I can become an ambassador for change, my heart must change first. The only way to overcome evil is through sacrificial love, and friendship is the means by which we spread this love. And even in the best of times, change is painfully slow. It happens incrementally through small acts of kindness, wholehearted hospitality, and grace offered to all.
So, just as the citizens of Narnia awaited the return of their king, Christians around the globe long for the second coming of Jesus. We know this world isn’t right and we feel the weight of injustice on our shoulders. Aslan where are you? We need you now.
Yet we Your people know what to do while we wait. Jesus made His directive clear. Feed the hungry, offer water to the thirsty, invite the stranger, clothe the needy, care for the sick, and visit the prisoner.
The kingdom of God on earth is built on such acts of love as these.
Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Dr Martin Luther King Jr from his 1963 book Strength to Love.
