A Bleak Arrival

When i walked into my home that afternoon, my family sat in front of the TV. My face must have showed some sign of surprise. It was the middle of the day, and the family was never home at the same time like this. No one said a word to me as I sat on the couch and began to watch the television.

Shock and horror filled the air as we watched the television. The heaviness of the room wrapped itself around my heart. I felt the hot, placid tears well up inside my throat. But when they emerged they became demons carrying a terrible message to the world. A tight noose hung around my heart. My arms fell heavy at my side. I got up and walked out my front door.

As I walked down the once beautiful street, and I took assessment of it. It's once admirable beauty was lost in a torrent of modernism. Signs and advertisements littered the walls. Women hung to their last desperate breath of life on the street corners, selling their bodies to fulfil the sick pleasures of men wanting to forget the terrible lives they lead, and the gruesome acts of self-service they demanded from life in one way or another. Young thieves ran from the hostility of a store clerk, not scared as one would expect, but laughing and cheering one another for the dense act of defiance towards the standards and morals of the community they were raised in. A couple argues in the car driving by. Divorce is imminent for the two. Neither was taught to deal with emotions, quite on the contrary, they act as children who don't get their way. Instead of thinking and logically deciphering the needs of one another and acting accordingly to keep peace and harmony, understanding and grace in the relationship, each thinks of his own agenda. Therefore the relationship will ultimately come to an end.

As I turn the corner to my ultimate destination, I see a Christian there trying to talk to people. There is desperation and a true caring in their eyes, but also that same shallowness seen in the married couple. This man didn't want you to believe for yourself, but for him. His teaching was not without sincerity of heart nor without truth and merit. But his demeanor made people walk by him without so much a nod. He, though apt to give his point of views and his decisions about life and morality, did not so much as listen to other opinions or comments. Such opinions and comments do ultimately lead to an open door of rational and logical discussion, in which he could introduce the sensitive and so important option of God. Of course this is not the way for everyone, but he could do better, such sadness I had seeing this. He acted as the married couple in the car. Without understanding, grace, peace, and love he had no chance of reaching these people. They were out for themselves and he was out for himself.

Along the way, I tried hard to get others to come with me. I told them where I was going, and they scoffed at me. Tears welled up inside, not for the rudeness they showed me, but for their loss. Were I was going would be better than this wasteland. It's beauty would never falter as this place has. But alas, none choose to come with me. So I walked on, alone.

Now at my precious destination, I looked back once again at the place I had just left. What a desolate wasteland of drivel I am leaving. Due the circumstances, mass chaos was breaking out in the city. People were pillaging, murdering, having sex in the streets. Mothers were killing their own children, Fathers were fighting in the streets for their carnal and corrupt desires. People were being raped in the streets, but no one was helping resolve. Some carried weapons, not for the charge of protection, but for the fulfilment of their desires. Kids ran around laughing at this as if it were everyday life. Maybe it had become so.

Behind me was this desolate and erring generation, but in front of me was this glorious ocean. It stretched in beauty as far as the eye could see. The sky and the ocean seemed to become one as the colors danced in and out of one another. A precious few joined me here. They came from the vile wasteland just as I had. Tears clung in our eyes as we looked at each other. Knowing permeated our bodies. The tears flowed down our faces and dropped into the ocean where they disappeared. With hands lifted above our heads we jumped into the swirling immensity of the waves. There the ocean caught us in its strong and powerful arms. Our tears disappeared in the oceans embrace. We danced together, the world we once knew floating away from our concerns. The abundance of the ocean kept us. Love was there. Hope was there. Newness was there. Everything we yearned for, everything we needed was there.