Season of Advent

A voice says, “Cry!”
                And I said, “What shall I cry?”
 
I ask that a lot here. What shall I cry? What do I want to tell people back home? What do I want to tell people here? What do I want to tell my politicians and the negotiators during the current peace talks. Words are important to me. They hold power. Words give people voices, and allow voices to be stolen.
 
All flesh is grass…
The grass withers, the flower fades
                But the word of our God will stand forever.
 
Right. I will fade; my body will wither. We live in a place littered with the ruins of once great kings and peoples. Temples, theaters, palaces-what remains is but a hint at the previous glory of mankind. Just as their lives and actions faded, so too will ours. During my time here, I am constantly caught up in my actions-am I doing enough? Am I doing the right thing? Is what I am doing helping to end the occupation? Are my actions helping move this broken land holding two suffering peoples towards justice and peace? But I have to stop and remember my words will fade. I will become but a dream in the eternity of God. I must move from the “me-ness” into the “me and God-ness”.
 
Some words I have found comfort in came from the program director Young Adults in Global Missions, Heidi Torgerson-Martinez. “The work of healing in the world is God’s work, not ours.” God can fix the problems of the world-He is big enough; I am not. It is God’s words that will stand forever-not mine.
 
He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
                He will gather the lambs in his arms;
He will carry them in his bosom,
                And gently lead those that are with young.
 
This knowledge does not give me license to check out of life. While I know I am taken care of, sometimes the lamb held to his bosom, other times just part of the herd, I have a responsibility to ask how I fit into the eternity of God. Sometimes I am that sheep with young being gently led. I am responsible for nurturing and holding a fellow creature in this world, but all the while accompanied by God. Here, I help carry the voices of my Palestinian brothers and sisters. God carries me to hear the voices of my Israeli brothers and sisters.
 
Isaiah tells me that God will come in with might, with trumpets and heralds. But I don’t see that. I hear God coming in the quite words of a mother to her new child. I see God coming in the extended hands of friendship. I feel God in the eternal seasons of life. I ask that my words and actions become a part of God’s eternal work. 

 

-Kaitlyn