God's got the whole world in God's hands

Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Floods, Tornadoes, Nations cities and states rising up against themselves...are these just the beginning of the birth pangs?

Between all the natural disasters that our world has faced in the past couple years, the fear mongering in response to these disasters, and the politicians of our world squaring off against each other in really nasty hate speech, it's hard not to wonder if this is what Jesus was talking about in the synoptic gospels when he spoke of the end times. One of my colleagues, who is a Baptist pastor, says "yes, absolutely." The day before Ash Wednesday we were chatting about the politics of our country and how that played in with everything else that was going on in the world and he suggested that maybe the Mayan calendar really is predicting something catastrophic...not necessarily the coming of Christ, yet...but something pretty catastrophic on a world wide scale.
It's hard not to get discouraged when it seems like the world is starting to fall apart and people are trying to predict which coast of the United States is going to fall into the ocean first as the result of a massive earthquake similar to or greater than the magnitude of the earthquake in Japan a week ago, all the while the political divisions in this country are growing and politicians are trying to pull things over on the people who elected them into office.

But then we have days like today when, here in Lawrence, KS, it is 65 and sunny and the crocuses are blooming. And we have facebook, where a growing number of my friends have posted ultrasound photos of their unborn children. And we have Wednesday afternoons, when the children's choir meets and the sounds of young voices flow down from the music room, and for a little while the world doesn't seem like such a bad place. There is hope on days like this, there is hope in those ultrasounds and in the voices of little ones. And that hope helps me to trust even more fervently that God's got it all in God's hands and it's all going to work out. God is going to make good come from bad situations, he always has and will continue to do so.

Below are the lyrics to the song "Your Hands" by J.J. Heller...I hope they are as hopeful and helpful to you as they are to me.

I have unanswered prayers
I have trouble I wish wasn't there
And I have asked a thousand ways
That You would take my pain away

I am trying to understand
How to walk this weary land
Make straight the paths that crookedly lie
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine

When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave Your hands

When You walked upon the Earth
You healed the broken, lost, and hurt
I know You hate to see me cry
One day You will set all things right

When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave Your hands

Your hands
Your hands that shape the world
Are holding me, they hold me still