“I thought it was so beautiful. Why did they have to ruin it?”
Her words were sharp and bitter. The idyllic setting of Geneva sitting beside the lake was forever changed. It was hard to imagine but as her words tumbled out things began to take shape.
She and her husband had considered moving to the city. For him it would have been a bit of a homecoming, having lived her fifteen years earlier, however it would have been a first for her. She was entranced by the nearby small towns, the changing colors of the lake, and the picturesque setting of the homes. It was as if in her mind everything good in the world was clustered together while excluding the traditional weaknesses of the human journey. Everything seemed magical in this city.
A walk on a sunny fall Sunday from the hotel to the lake changed every! In the course of minutes she passed a wide range of buildings representing every weakness of man today. It would have caused a disturbance no matter what time of day the discovery came to light. However, coming in the setting it did – A crisp, wonderful, fall Sunday where everything that is good in life seemed to be playing and dancing in front of her – caused a profound sadness and anger to flow without measure.
Simply put, it was and is confusing.
Life is like that much of the time. Just when we think that we have things figured out something weird, sad, and confusing happens. Kids stab and kill other kids over something that does not matter. One individual rationalizes their failures and yet again blames any and everyone around themselves, unable to cope with reality.
One looks around and realizes that much of life follows Wisdom’s observation, “Putting a fool in a place of honor is like setting a mud brick on a marble column” (Proverbs 26.8)
Good thing God added grace, mercy, love, unconditional acceptance, and restoration to the mix! Life is confusing yet God has a plan. What happens next is up to us.
