"Is everything sad going to come untrue?" Samwise Gamgee in JRR Tolkien's Return of the King
Sometimes when I know I will have a long phone call, I will take a walk. I can focus better and, at the same time, get some precious time outside. With hardly anyone out because of the restrictions I had the sidewalks mostly to myself. But, somewhere around mile 3, another man came towards me on the sidewalk without a mask and without a sense that others were around him. As he got closer it wasn't hard to see that this man's life has not been easy. He talked loudly to either himself or people in his own mind, walking erratically as if the sidewalk was moving up and down and his feet couldn't catch up with the movement.
I didn't know this man's background. Don't know how his parent's cared for him (or didn't) or the trouble he willingly got into in the past (or didn't), but what I did know is that this man has a name. That name is known by his Creator and (though this brings up questions) lovingly crafted in God's image.
I gave him the sidewalk and let him pass. As he did questions flooded my mind in his wake. Questions that all began with either "why God?" or "When God?”
"Why are things like they are?" "When will You make them different?"
There are no simple answers. The reasons behind our brokenness are as complicated as we broken people ourselves.
Though many of my questions that arise as I walk next to men like this will not be answered on this side of eternity, one thing we can know for sure: God entered the world he created in order to restore the world (especially the people he made) back into wholeness and beauty.
This is why Jesus came. With every person he encountered he pushed back the dominion of darkness and the regime of destruction. His miracles were signs that can cause us to wonder at both the depth in which we are twisted, broken and the power of Jesus to undo all the sad things we have created because of it.
When Jesus meets with a person, that person gets a glimpse of restoration for not only men like my neighbor on the sidewalk, but all of us. He is making everything that is sad come untrue.