My grandfather was three years old when his father was killed in WWII - struck by a bomb during one of the worst raids in Liverpool. The decorated soldier left behind four children and a wife. My great-grandmother would huddle over her children every night in the bomb shelter that was dug in the backyard, while Germans flew over and attacked the port area which they lived.
Years before, the same woman lost her kindhearted stepfather in a gruesome battle in France. His body was buried in a French grave, 733 miles away from her Welsh home. I often think of my great and great-great grandmothers, especially during times like these. I wonder how they felt, how they grieved during war, how they found courage to keep looking forward…how did my great-grandmother find the will to get out of bed and make breakfast after the 1941 bombing that destroyed her town? Both of these women were war widows and raising their babies in a world with evil men.
We watch the news with the memory of a goldfish. Why are we so surprised about the headlines? Especially Christians, since Scripture literally tells us about this depraved world we live in. There have been wars and rumors of wars for generations. We have veterans living today that cannot bear to even whisper the tales of war their eyes have seen.
My grandfather joined The Cheshire Regiment, just like his father. He and/or many of his friends fought communists in Malaya, and later, stationed in Cyprus. When he moved to America, he befriended men who were sent to Korea and Vietnam. He was alive to see the World Trade Center fall, and watch young men leave to the Middle East.
I have been reading Early Christian history lately, recently coming across the story of Perpetua. Perpetua was a young Christian woman who ended up being slaughtered by the Romans in the Colosseum because of her faith in Jesus. She just had a baby a few days prior, the Romans stripped her naked, and the crowd screamed in protest when they saw milk from her breasts. Yet, she died courageously and left her child in the care of family and friends, as did thousands of early Church Christians.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” -2 Corinthians 4:16
My son is learning about the Roman Empire right now, as well as some early American history, which all echos the same truths since the Fall. Men are inherently sinful and there are always wicked men throughout history who crave power, land, money over humanity, and there are often men with morals trying to do the right thing. Why are we surprised? Hurting? Yes. Our souls aching? Absolutely. Shocked at the depravity of the world? Why? What do we expect of a world that continues to deny God? What do we expect of a country that used to be “one nation under God” and has since then turned their back on Him?
I do agree that in times past, Americans relied on their faith in God and faith in country to do the right thing, and today I don’t think the majority of our country has faith in either. I think that’s the only difference between what’s happening now, and what’s happened in years past. This isn’t the America my grandfather moved to, this isn’t the America that I grew up in, and it’s certainly not the America our Founding Fathers saw to create.
I’m sure that my great-grandmother had thought that the Lord would soon come down, just like her children waited with the same thoughts as they faced new wars. I know that was the thought during the Cold War, I know that the early Church waited too. I know that during each war, during each horrible event, people would swear "this is finally it, this is finally the event that’s going to trigger the rapture”.
Whether or not we will be the final generation doesn’t much matter.
We are all going to be at the feet of our King eventually.
Waiting for the Messiah was the hope that generations waited for faithfully, and waiting for the 2nd coming is the hope of the remainder. That hope, and the faith in eternity is what gets us through. Whether the human race has another 300 years left on Earth, or terrorists will knock on your door tomorrow…the only thing the headlines truly remind us is that our hope lies in Jesus, not men.