Thank you, Mr. Adam, for that Awful Legacy

I was reading a column in The Maui News this morning. The columnist, Lynne Horner, was commenting about how confusing it is to know that "in the same instant things can be so right in one place, and so wrong in another...". She was referring to Haiti, of course.

It is strange. I mentioned that in my last post...that while I am in one place that particular place is my "reality". And when I move from home to vacation home, the new place becomes more "real" in my mind than the home I left last week.

Because Haiti is "there" and not "here" most of us simply cannot comprehend the magnitude of the tragedy. Not even with a long stream of photos of the daily happenings since. And lest we dismiss it lightly from our minds, simply because it is "so far away", let us remind ourselves that these are people and families and homes and children and grandparents and loved ones. Let us sorrow deeply on their behalf.

The world is like that, you know. It is feast or famine. Feast in many areas of the world. Famine in so many others. Death and destruction are all around us and it behooves us to know that we (you and I) are not exempt from tragedy. It is the way of this fallen world.

When Adam deliberately and willingly disobeyed God in the Garden, he brought death and destruction into the world. He brought it not only upon his own head, he brought it to his entire family. That's you and me, Folks! Every last one of his descendants lives in a world of death and destruction. It is all around us. We forget that. Sometimes our forgetfulness is due to naivity. Sometimes it is a wishful forgetfulness. Sometimes we just get caught up in the "day-to-day" stuff of ordinary living. The "here and now" takes up our senses and deceives us into seeing only what is in front of us.

But it remains. Adam's legacy. It remains. It is ours. The older one gets, the more one realizes and sees the clarity of all that.

It behooves us to recognize that we (a collective we, all of us) are not in control. We need to bow down to the Creator God and our Lord and Savior in recognition of His divine right to our worship and obedience.

And we need to remember to pray for mercy, both for ourselves in our life of relative ease as well as for those for whom tragedy is "reality".

.