A new day for humanity

Even if I had heard it personally from God, I wouldn't have ever declared to the world, "Today is the end. Today is judgment day,"  but since the words have been spoken, my heart asks, as usual, "what does it mean that someone would say that and even more so, what does it mean that CNN felt it was worth reporting on?"


And then it hit me.  Of course it is the end of the world as we know it.  And, maybe we can rejoice in it and celebrate the new day that is emerging in its wake.  If today is the end of war or genocide, of torture, of alcoholism, child abuse, domestic violence, greed, cruelty to animals, exploitation of the weak, destruction of our environment, the end of filty water and AIDS in Africa, the end of poverty, the end of sickness, if it is, then we can all rejoice and sing and dance a jig down Main Street.


It must mean then that it's the dawning of a new age, the birth of peace, the birth of a radiantly new and beautiful hope for mankind, the blossoming of new life, the singing of children again, the love of nations, peace among all people, generosity, kindness, goodness and most of all love.  Is it that, my dear friends?  Could we think that it is that?  Yes.  Just maybe it is that.  Could it be that the New Age officially begins today, according to the old curmudgeon who declared to the world that it was the end of the world.  The flip side of his doomsday report is the blessing and love of our Creator who says he would always be with us, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and in every end is a beginning.  So, today, if your heart is courageous, seek the light in the darkness that is sweeping away the old, and hold on to the love that will now spread and blossom across our world.


In God is all life, all love, all goodness and His promise is that He would never destroy the world again.  It is the rainbow after the flood, the morning dawn after a dark night of terror.  He loves everyone of us, no matter how little we have loved.  He waits always loving, patiently as an expectant mother awaits the birth of her child.  Maybe, just maybe, today is the birth of our new world.

O Brave New World

The fragrance of new life softly whispered through our battered and war-weary world yesterday, tripping gently on the heels of the death of the world's most marauding pirate. 

The late terrorist had held the world captive in fear, steeped in darkness, as the world teetered in economic collapse due to multi-billion dollar military operatives, crushing perhaps most of all the hope for a better future for our young.  

But yesterday the world woke up to a new hope.  The light dawned on a new age opening before us.  

Yes, "the wicked witch is dead,"  I thought as words from the Oz circled in my head when I heard the news of bin Laden's death.  He had held us all captive.  It was an all-pervading dim fear, a palatable darkness, an uncertain future for the United States and the world.  

Since 9/11 our economy had fallen, people had somehow adjusted to living in fear, stripped at airports, not sure if we would survive the decade. Today the news of his death brings a new hope.  Maybe the troops will come home from Afghanistan.  Maybe the dictators in the Middle East will wake up and step down and give the reigns of power to their people, where it should be.  The world is waking up quickly to a new era.  The old is gone as this "brave new world" is blinking open before us. (The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1, Wm. Shakespeare).

Yet, if we only see the death of bin Laden as justice served, as an eye for an eye, we have missed the meaning of this hinge point in history.  It is not justice.  There can be no justice for the thousands killed by al Qaeda over these past 10 years.  Nothing can return a life, undo a torture, remove the past, return the religious prejudice that underlined the entire decade.  

Nothing the U.S. military does can ever put the heads back on those who were tortuously beheaded by al Qaeda, especially Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter, or the leader of Care International who was in Iraq to care for the suffering children and women and many others who were beheaded in the years after 9/11.  

Nothing can bring life back to those countless many who were brutally tortured and slaughtered by the terrorist organization led by the world's most heinous human being. 

Yet, yesterday morning's news does bring the world respite, an end of our long stormy decade of horror.  The world survived because we walked these tempestuous years together, first weeping in grief, then in agony and fear and finally in faith and have won the victory over a most insidious oppressor.  In this new day, we have breathed the last of the stench of bin Laden's worldwide network of terror. That night is over and we have together rediscovered how precious life is.  

We came together - nation after nation - to rally for peace, for democracy, for justice.  We as a world suffered and walked together, hand in hand bravely  into the night of our former age, courageously and patiently and persistently reaching for the light of this new age, which dawned as the body of bin laden slipped into the depths of the Arabian Sea, calming the tempest of our times at last.