I look out from my wide porch upon the view of green valleys and clusters of houses on the hillside, interspersed with terraced fields, and am deeply touched by the beauty of this country, and it makes me weep! I think of Jesus, and about what Isaiah wrote about him centuries before he lived on earth:
Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6, KJV, emphasis mine)
I hear in my mind the portion of Handel’s Messiah where these words have been set to music, while in my living room Sam and his cousin Enias are watching Rwanda TV’s broadcasts of mourning songs, griefs recounted by survivors, and soon, the ceremonies from the national stadium, called Amahoro, which means peace. I am trying to make a space for these young men, and am happy that Enias came to keep Sam company. I served them coffee, in hopes of giving them a little break from the non-stop grieving pouring out of the TV. I wonder, as I do each year, how these images and stories help people to bear and transcend their grief, or if they only cause the wounds to re-open, without end.
Jean McAlister
Missionary
0 Responses to “Beauty… makes me weep!”