A Hero

Note:

09 July 2016

So much hurt has been inflicted upon people in recent days…in Istanbul, Dhaka, Harare, Medina, Baton Rouge, etc.

I wrote this last night to help me process all that’s going on.

We Need A Hero.

Broken and traumatised. That’s us.

We’re rich and advanced and at the height of our powers, yet one look within collapses these ‘mighty’ towers.

In truth, we are poor, uncivilised and desperately weak. We feel fear and anger so strong that we can hardly speak.

The ones we call evil have struck again. In Nairobi and Dhaka; in Baghdad and Baton Rouge; in quiet streets and crowded markets

They have taken lives, paid bribes and told lies. They have chosen brutality where love must rise. Watch now how they mock our cries.

O who will save us from this mindless pain? Who will bring refreshment like a summer day’s rain?

We need a hero. Fast.

We need a hero. Now.

Someone to bring us hope. Someone to change hearts and give us scope.

Look! There he is! Our hero.

He’s outside the city wall.

He’s been despised and rejected; told he’s unfit for the modern day; scorned and mocked; no room except in the nativity play.

But this Hero is Love.

And because he loves he waits. Because he loves he was battered. Because he loves he hates injustice. Because he loves he overflows with grace. Because he loves he became a man, able to connect with us in our mess.

This is the hero we need.

A God with scars and fully acquainted with grief.