A City

Sundays were either bright, cheery and grace-filled or dark, damp and laden with the Law. Today was a Sunday of the latter kind though there was a strange note of grace in the air.

The dark days of winter were bearing down faster than ever before. The cold winds of October had been blowing since September. Eager, it seemed, to bring death upon this part of the world. Cast out from the other side of the earth where spring was emerging in flower-clad fields, the winds mourned with hollow voices over Tokyo. Just as One once cried "Woe!" over another great city.

Could she feel it? Could she hear the heart beats of those who yearned to turn her face to the Almighty LORD?

Like a massive weight holding the country down, Tokyo groans in pain and despair. Her cries echoing across the sea onto seemingly deaf ears.

Where was her Savior? The rising sun of her heart? She forever looks east yet sees only a frozen expanse of blue meeting blue.

Keep looking, Beloved! Your Light will come! The Morning Star will rise in your hearts! He is coming soon to gather those who are lost. To turn cries of despair into laughter. To change dark countenances into tears of joy!

Soon all will fall silent; the trains, the wind, the people, before the day of the LORD. All will turn their faces and wait in expectation for the One.

pain

in a place where there are few candles
Your Son must come
this is the land of the rising sun yet there is no hope. there is no joy. there is no rising. there is only setting and darkness. there are only black, cold fields and hollow wind. the people walk about with a deep, gaunt ache in their eyes. a yearning after something more. a longing for the sunrise. a longing for love. true love.

Lord, Your love is the only thing that sustains and gives me hope when i hear this news. Your love is the only thing that saves me. that keeps me from succumbing to the hopelessness and despair i feel at hearing of one life taken.

i cannot imagine such despair. such a hurt that goes deeper than i'll ever know. something that connects to the sin inside and magnifies the mirror i look into so i can see every spot, every blemish. i cannot imagine being in such a place and having the devil twist and crush even more.

Abba, You love them. every single one of them. and i know that Your heart broke the second that man stepped in front of the train. the minute anna's toes found the cold water rushing over them.

here there are no rainbows, no strings to remind You of them. i know that You remember and Your heart weeps at the pain they left behind. that You are calling, yearning to rescue those who have not gone all the way yet.

Abba, sooner or later everyone falls in love. if we are here with Your light inside us Your love also will flow out and when You work through us in such a way we are never the same. even imperceptive changes on the outside move mountains on the inside.