Hope-ful news?

I have been watching the CNN news a bit more the past couple of days. It was quite an exposure to the reality of what is happening not only at our doorsteps but all round the world. Usually the local news is troubling enough......

In this season of Advent is there anything 'hope-ful'? Is it all bleak from financial crises to riots, and infectious diseases like cholera and bird flu? I felt the need to pray and yet how to articulate so much pain and distress, so much of human freedom that is being compromised. In the end, I found that it is only possible to pray by asking for God's peace and mercy to reign on every individual involved....and to trust in unseen graces that must be there even in the deepest darkness. Perhaps that is what Advent waiting is all about. Sometimes, we just have to wait it out, for no immediate answers are granted. We just have to trust that Christ comes... into our lives even now and will come again one day -when it all will be well, all manner of things will be well (Julian of Norwich)

The response of a Korean man who lost his family in a tragic accident caught my attention. His wife, children and mother in law died when a light aircraft crashed into their home. Yet a couple of days later, he chose to make a public statement: he offered forgiveness to the pilot of the plane who survived, and asked for prayer for him. He was able, with the support of his pastor, to think of the someone else, the pilot, who was also traumatised - even though not in the same way. I see some light shining through the darkness for him, and a testimony to the world about what our Christian faith means to us. At times like this - yes, I am grateful, that "In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness....". The true light that gives light to every man has come into the world......Yes, it will take a long time for our Korean brother to accept his losses but he has started on the right path. In fact, the news report asks viewers whether they would be able to do the same, in similar circumstances.