The first time I realized my home was profoundly different from most was as a teenager during the Cold War. Minute Man missile silos in the near country side were a continuos reminder of world affairs and I worried constantly about peace on earth, goodwill toward men. That there were people on the face of the earth prejudiced toward me simply because I was an American was never far from my mind. Yes, I stayed distressed without ceasing! My dad commented that if I couldn’t think of anything real to worry about I invented something. I’m glad my parents had enough wisdom and personal strength to see me through these age appropriate worries without having me institutionalized or treated for extreme paranoia.
Dad was patient and wise. He realized I was on a journey to knowing God as my source of strength and assurance and sat beside my bed one sleepless night discussing the greatest concerns of my life: Friday night activities, facial blemishes, stylish fashions and the biggie….. Did the opposite sex find me acceptable? Exceptional? Or revolting? In the course of our conversation we graduated to discerning what the worries of fourteen year old Russian girls, or Chinese girls were. I began to realize that adolescent girls worldwide spend most of their creative energy and mental space on boys, social acceptance and daydreams of happily ever after, rather than the nuclear destruction of me.
In the following years as I became a wife and mother I again felt overwhelmed by the social and political status of the world. I had a toddler when the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed killing 168 people, including many pre-school children. The terror of Sept. 11, 2001 brought the world to a stop and my mother’s heart felt cold and afraid. As I processed each of these events and many others I returned to that night of crisis when dad taught me that with the exception of a very few extremely evil beings we are all the same world wide with much the same objective, peace. I am comforted that the issues of greatest concern to every mother in the world is the well being of her children. Therefore, there is hope and great possibility of dialogue on world peace or the lack thereof.
Loving a physically and emotionally hungry world is a priority to many people, not just me. I’m not in this alone and never will be. The essence of God is this, He sent His Son, the Prince of Peace to settle the battle between good and evil. The declaration that “Love Never Fails” (I Cor. 13:8) isn’t just a warm fuzzy, but a promise worthy of guiding our every action. It’s 100% guaranteed to win……..… Actually, it already did!
Blessings,
Gretchen