And so, peace.
You won't find it on the streets, where criminal illegal aliens -- too many of them murderers, rapists, human traffickers, drug cartel operatives -- hide behind hordes of victimized innocents, families seeking better lives, driven by desperation and the winks and lure of corrupt American business and politics to skirt immigration law, as all are belatedly being rounded up.
Blame can go back generations, greed crosses political and corporate lines and national borders. But the faces of victims are still haunting, and this gallery is seemingly endless. Justice is not only not balanced, but it is messy, and painful, beyond understanding.
Past political failures in our nation's capital, while primarily of one party and presidents who spent their terms putting off the inevitable push back on radical islamic apocalyptic visions of nuclear explosions over Israel, have been met with what could be the beginning of a planetary end game -- our nation's attempt this weekend to destroy Iran's nuclear arms dreams.
We pray, hope, wonder if the end game will be met with Iran folding its mushroom aces. . . or if the horror has just begun.
"For when they shall say, 'Peace and safety,' then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child . . .,'" is a verse (1 Thessalonians 5:3 KJV) I recall from my childhood Bible study. (End Times verses, often out of context, were a big thing in Pentecostal Fundamentalist 'The End is Near' theology).
Well, we'll see. Fear makes headlines better than hope, so in a way, it makes sense it only took minutes for a particular news organization to report rumors that maybe Russia would give nuclear warheads to Iran!
And of course, they also reported that with the Biden administration having let in millions of unvetted illegal immigrants -- thousands believed to be on terrorist lists -- we can expect "sleeper cell" attacks.
Last bit might be more likely, I don't know. Hope neither is, but we have had more than a few of those so-called "lone wolf" attacks over the past weeks, months, and years.
So, back to that peace thing.
Not on TV. Not on the radio. Not during rush hour on "road rage" plagued freeways. Locally, not in our neighborhood parks during community celebrations -- we've had a number of deadly gang-related shootings here in Utah, and during a "peaceful protest" downtown in Salt Lake City.
Peace, then in your heart?
Tougher and tougher to find.
But still possible.
A walk along a forest trail, hand-in-hand with your loved one. The water cascades from streams nearby, bees float amid flowers purple, gold, orange, gold, silky white, emerald, and nestled in wreaths of green. The air is filled with perfume of pollen and pine; sunlight and shadow dance thrown tree limbs and rock.
Or, a candle is lit, bee's wax slowly descending its shaft as wisps of incense rise in a smoky circuit to saintly icons on the wall. Your prayers, whispered at first, are swallowed in silence echoed in your mind, and eternity.
Peace, and your focus finds the stars.
