The first ten years of my life, consisted of surviving World War 2 in Germany. Late in the war, in 1943, my father, after three month of basic training, was sent to the Russian front from where he never returned. At home my family, as was the case of all people, had to endure endless bomb attacks, losing all belongings several times, trying to survive in a city that was 80% destroyed. Personally, I remember British and or US low flying aircraft, firing machineguns at convoys of civilian woman and children fleeing the burning city.
Paradoxically, during this same time period, and in many parts of the world, there were millions of people going about their normal daily business and pleasures of life, unaffected by what was happening in my part of the world. It was their time to enjoy life regardless of what happened in other parts of the world.
The description of two different sets of circumstances above is not something new or unique, so why make the point?
I make the point because for the past 15 days my wife Erika and I were able to fulfill a long held dream of a trip by ship, cruising from the Pacific Ocean (Los Angeles, California) to the Atlantic Ocean (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) via the Panama Canal (Panama, Central America). The ship was the Queen Victoria of the Cunard Line, catering to its 2000 passengers in true British hospitality. The journey took us to such exotic ports as Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and Zihuatanejo / Ixtoba, Mexico, to Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala, to Fuerto Amador, Panama. Once we made the eight hour trip through the Panama Canal, we visited Kralendijk, Bonair one of the Dutch Antilles Islands and made our way through the Caribbean Sea to Miami and Fort Lauderdale, on the Florida Atlantic Sea coast. It was a dream come true in every respect, and we enjoyed each day to the fullest.
Paradoxically, each day during this trip, we couldn’t avoid the daily news about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, with its loss of lives and its utter destruction. Nevertheless, life on board ship went on as scheduled for we were on an ocean liner in the Pacific Ocean, and not in Japan!
Many centuries ago, one of the wisest man that ever lived, Solomon, King in Jerusalem, wrote the following in Eccl. 9:
1 But all this (read previous chapters) I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hands of God; whether it is love or hate man does not know. Everything before them is vanity,
2 since one fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good man, so is the sinner; and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath.
3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that one fate comes to all; also the hearts of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward; but the memory of them is lost.
6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and they have no more for ever any share in all that is done under the sun.
7 Go eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already approved what you do.
8 Let your garments be always white; let no oil be lacking on your head.
9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life which has been given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.
10 Whatever your hands finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol to which you are going.
11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the man of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.
12 For man does not know his time. Like fish which are taken in an evil net, and like birds which are caught in a snare, so the sons of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.
We prayed for the people of Japan, but this was not the time for us to experience the miseries of human life that exists under the sun. Forcefully we became aware that even under the best of circumstances, life under the sun, falls far short of any ideal we would like to see and experience. This ideal will not be realized until the curse of sin on the earth and on humanity is removed.
Rev. 20:1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain.
2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while.
Yes, we prayed for the people of Japan, but a prayer needed more than any other is:
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hollowed be thy name.
Thy kingdome come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
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