© jb katke

I don’t have enough fingers to count how many years, my husband Dave, and I went without a camera. During those years, we purchased several cameras for our children. It was on their wish list at Christmas time, and we parents do like to please our kids.

The problem was, they did not always take pictures of what we would. Hence, few memories to look back on. Birthdays, holidays, and some vacations went by undocumented. The beauty of photos is, they remind you of past events. Aside from their reaching adulthood, we have little to prove the kids really did grow up.

Those were the days prior to the cell phones we have today; I don’t have to list the attributes of these pocket phones; you know. Today people take pictures of their meal, as if it was important enough to look back on in years to come.

It’s been said that, ‘A picture can say a thousand words.’ Recently the two of us, along with our daughters family, visited a local exhibit, Auschwitz. It was a sobering experience to see the multitude of pictures displaying the evil mankind is capable of. Just inside the exit door of the exhibit was this above sign I share with you.

Pictures cannot lie. I can’t imagine anything worse than what these people endured. Yet here we are; with injustice happening again. Televisions are bringing in our living room the pictures of the devastation in Ukraine for the whole world to see. It is hard to comprehend.

What is even harder to grasp, is why the Lord is allowing this to happen. Who can know the mind of God? Based on what I have read in the Good Book, this is not a new thing. Wars and rumors of wars have been going on from the beginning of time. Power overcoming another.

It becomes a situation of survival of the fittest. I cannot see an end in sight. But I know it will eventually end because the Good Book says nothing on earth will last forever.  That can bring to mind the question, is there a world where things will last forever?

That I can answer. Yes. Referring to the Good Book again, we can read that the Lord has prepared a place for us to live eternally…if we want to. It has everything we yearn for now, peace, unity, contentment, love, good health, joy, and much more. We will want for nothing, but you have to desire what he has to offer.

What I am speaking of is God’s house. His place is like yours, in that, not everyone is allowed entry. Just as you would not desire for anyone evil to come in and ruin the aforementioned, or trash your home; the same goes with the Lord.  Try not to wait too long in deciding whether you want that or not, much can happen in the meantime.

In order to trust him, you gotta read what he promises; then hang your faith there. He has the final word and even tells us all become good in his time. The best is yet to be if we cling to him.

This, coming from a seasoned worrier; I have finally learned it accomplishes nothing.