War

My younger child asked

“Is this the start of WWIII?”

She had just been studying about Hitler, disarmment, the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations

“Wow it’s like seeing history happen right in front of our eyes,” she said as the car radio droned out BBC News

.

It is a confusing time

Initial gut reactions of shock and horror at unprovoked aggression

Murder of heads of state

Yet there were Iranians celebrating from rooftops and balconies

And one remembers that indeed the regime was brutal

Especially to women, innocent women

.

Is this what it takes

Once again as with Venezuela, does the end ever justify

the means

Especially when the means

Means death and destruction

to soldiers, civilians, innocent people going about their daily lives

all humans made in the image of God

Obliterated (if fortunate) or maimed to suffer

.

They call themselves the Islamic State but

This is not what the Islam my Muslim friends know

Militant Islam, it is branded

But when religion becomes militant, how is it worth believing in?

.

The arrogant self-belief of other so-called leaders

Endowed with military might

So sure they are right

But who will ultimately be held responsible by their Maker

For the order to kill

to bomb and to devastate

.

Not the first genocide ordered by those who once suffered genocide

Cruel irony

and pure cruelty

In inflicting untold human suffering

by forcing families to flee their homes

into hostile wilderness

but there will be Judgement

.

No matter how invincible a human thinks he is

He is merely one heart attack or brain aneurysm away from meeting his Creator

And being called to account for all his works and words

In this ultimate Justice we trust

Whilst man in their foolishness maim and destroy

Grasshoppers who think they are gods

.