People mess around with translations and different renderings of the biblical text so much these days, I don't even care that I did not get this right. The point is, think on these things.
Vanity, vanity. Trying to explain, to rationalize, to put things to rights.
If we had any sense at all, words would fail us.
The evil, awful dying of a child. One I am thinking of, in particular. But thousands today around the world. And the twenty people in this country who died today of gun violence. And the millions who suffer from war and famine and systematic starvation. Half the children in the US living under the poverty level. Good lord!
We waste our time with explanations. All, any explanations. It us beyond us. Let's be honest. We try to find our way through the jungle of inexplicable suffering, horror, evil with words that placate. But let's be honest. Let's just say, we don't know why.
Oh, we may know some of the facts. A missing enzyme. Cruel dictators, greedy bastards. Scared and abused people who only know how to scare and abuse others. We know that part of 'why.'
But the ultimate why? Let's be honest. We really don't know. To say otherwise is to fashion a god in our image. Even the revealed God didn't fall for our clumsy platitudes. The tower falls on the just and the unjust. Deal with it.
We have one way through this abyss. Grace. To see grace, to be grace. To see beauty, to be beauty. To be honest, to shine with light.
So, on this day, as we grieve and think about the dying of the child, and the man who suffers with cancer, and the woman who is starving, and the stupidity of lawmakers, I can offer only only this, but what this it is.
If there is any beauty, any wonder, anything good and vibrant, anything light and lovely,
think, think, take in and revel for the moment. In these good things. Grace.
