The world is on fire, and everyone seems to be fighting over what part of this burning planet others are allowed to stand on. Nevermind that our hair is in flames, just stay on your side of the wall. I was horrified by Ukraine, by Armenia, by so many other conflicts. This week I'm flabbergasted by the conflict in Israel/Palestine. Each side is firm in their belief that God gave them a certain portion, and they take that to mean "No one else is allowed." Nowhere did he say "Use it to indulge your sense of superiority and oppress others." What if God gave them that land with the expectation that they would use it to shelter and feed others on it? To take stewardship and care of it and ALL its inhabitants? And if we truly believed God gave us this land, this earth, wouldn't you have thought we'd have taken better care of such a gift?
Perhaps He gave certain inheritances to our ancestors, but that doesn't mean WE still deserve it. I suspect we don't. I suspect we've forfeited any right to this entire planet through our own cruelty, mindlessness, and self-centeredness. This tiny, burning earth deserves better. Right now, I wouldn't mind if God took us all out. Blew the whistle. Right! Everyone, out of the pool! If you can't share nicely, no one gets it!
I suppose, if we wanted to, we could blame God for starting all this conflict in the first place. After all, He made the fundamental parenting mistake of playing favourites (He's done that a lot throughout human history -- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph to name a few), and anyone can tell you that only leads to sibling rivalry. Maybe instead of asserting our rights and summarily dispatching others from off our planet, we should address that fundamental problem, and get rid of the concept of favourites.
I know it isn't as simple as territorialism. There are a lot of other factors at play, and I have no idea how this will be sorted out. Meanwhile, I'm personally on the side of the children and animals and plants. I'm not too impressed with adult humans right now.
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