Having just come through the remembrances of the ten year anniversary of the events of 9-11, I found myself thinking about our world.  Ten years later, are we- and not just Americans- better off?  Are we safer or more secure?  Have we learned lessons that make life better for all people?  In truth, it doesn’t feel like we really have.  Yes, we have taken many steps to increase security precautions, fought 2 wars, and perhaps live with a greater awareness that the world doesn’t begin and end on our own continent.  But does anyone really feel that the world is actually pursuing peace over self-advancement and preservation? Mutual cooperation over mutual mistrust?  The good of the least of these over the greed of the most of these?  Neither do I.

But just when I start to feel pretty hopeless, I remember that we aren’t going to fix this world by virtue of our own cleverness and capacity.  We don’t have it in us.  But there is One who does.  And fittingly, the One Year Bible reading for September 11 speaks of Him.  Isaiah spoke of Him hundreds of years before His birth, and these words evoke just as much hope two thousand years after His death and resurrection. Here they are:

For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His government and its peace
will never end.

He is the One we long for.  His Kingdom- may it come in fulness.  May it come soon.  Come, Lord Jesus!