Dear Lord,
What is it like for you to look at the world you created? You see the beauty, the nature, people caring for each other, children being born. But there is the other side. I can’t imagine how much evil you see. Children going hungry, dying in their mother’s arms; weapons becoming more important than the people they were designed to protect; tired and lonely people wandering the streets, not only without a place to stay but also without dignity and respect.

From the comfort of my own safe and warm home, I look into the photo for this week. The bombed out houses, the smoke rising, the small flowers left on the tree. It suddenly changes from yet another photo of a war zone to a real neighborhood. From these houses, people went to work, celebrated family events, talked about upcoming weddings and books, borrowed flour from their neighbors. Now it’s gone, a smoky rubble.

How do you look down on such a world, where we are destroying one another’s homes, pouring chemicals into the waters, and valuing money and possessions more than each other? You must feel such great sadness inside. Your creations have forgotten you.

But in an incomprehensible act of love, your compassion moves you to give yourself so completely to the world you created. You express your love for us in a most unusual way — you become one of us. How could you love us that much? Knowing that it means pain and struggle and death?

Oh, Lord, teach me to love more. I beg you, please let me see and feel how you lived your life on earth. I want to know you even better and want to be with you in this world. I want to accept your invitation, to say yes to you. Now please let me become friends with you as you walk the earth. Let me learn from you, talk with you. Let me see how I can pattern my life after yours.