A Wonderful World?

Last Monday I visited Longwood Gardens and watched the newly revitalized fountains put on a spectacular show to music—including Louis Armstrong’s song, “What a Wonderful World.”  And it was wonderful:  that voice, those fountains, the warm sun and blue sky.

I see trees of green, red roses too.  I see them bloom, for me and you. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

And yet, I couldn’t help thinking about the day’s breaking news—the horrendous shooting in Las Vegas:  58 dead, nearly 500 wounded, and all because of one man’s premedi­tated, ruthless, terrifying killing extravaganza.  We all wondered, “Why—why would anyone do such a thing?!”  And we prayed:  “God have mercy.”

So there was this agonizing dissonance:  What is it—do we live in a wonderful world or a harrowing world?  And the answer is, “Yes.”  Our life this side of heaven is a glorious yet gut-wrenching mixture of God’s beautiful creation with unspeakable ravages of sin.

God made this world “very good” (Genesis 1:31).  And we can and ought to celebrate his creative genius:  The heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1).  The curse (see Genesis 3:14-19) has not ruined every­thing—far from it.  Psalm 104:24 is our joyful praise song:  O Lord, how manifold are your works!  In wisdom have you made them all.

And yet, we’re told to “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15); Jesus himself shed tears of grief at the death of a friend (John 11:35).  Humanity willfully plunged into self-worship, refusing to honor or give thanks to God (Romans 1:21)—and so God “gave them up” to sin’s devastating effects.  Yes, death will be destroyed, and it cannot separate us from Jesus.  But it still wreaks havoc among us today.

So where does this leave us—as followers of Jesus in this bleak-but-beautiful world?  Scripture calls us not to be entitlement-people who resent the risk of suffering, but Jesus-people who are “granted” to suffer for his sake (Phil 1:29) and who love our neighbors in the midst of dark days.  Mostly, it leaves us with the charge to be people of hope:  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope (Romans 15:13).