Having Dozed Off In A Dream World, Let's Imagine Waking Up In The Real World

Harrisonburg's Heritage Oaks Golf Course photo

Anyone looking for paradise on earth would be hard pressed to find a more perfect one than the Shenandoah Valley. In the heart of that beautiful part of Virginia, few locations on earth rival the city of Harrisonburg, aptly named the "Friendly City." Within that community, the area known as Park View is as hospitable and habitable can be found anywhere. Then within that locale, Park Village, a part of Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, offers an unusually rare taste of paradise.

This is where Alma Jean and I are privileged to live, surrounded by wonderful neighbors, well-kept lawns and landscaping and every amenity imaginable. We are blessed beyond measure.

We also realize it's easy to become blinded beyond measure to the realities in the rest of the real world. 

So what if God were to awaken us from our deep sleep and introduce us to a new way of seeing the world as God sees it every day, the world we share with 7 billion fellow members of God's family? What if whole communities of that world were brought into our very neighborhood? 

Imagine if just south of our VMRC border, as close as EMU's athletic fields and campus complex, we saw crowded communities of Central and South American neighbors every day, far too many of whose very lives are at risk due to poverty, crime and violent drug cartels. Thousands of these see emigration as their only hope.

Imagine hearing deadly and deafening sounds of homes, apartments, businesses, schools and hospitals nearby being reduced to rubble by merciless bombings as in Ukraine, Syria and other parts of the world ravished by endless war. Imagine hearing anguished cries of the wounded and of those mourning the massacre of their loved ones and loss of their homes and possessions. 

Imagine having nearby fields and farmlands experiencing unheard of droughts that are threatening to cause starvation on an unprecedented scale, as in places like sub Sahara Africa and other parts of the world directly affected  by climate change. Imagine animals and humans alike experiencing desperate shortages of water and food sources vital to their survival. Imagine surrounding forests of trees in the valley and nearby mountains being razed, as they are in the Amazon basin and in places like Haiti, further wounding the planet and exacerbating global warming. 

Imagine millions of homeless refugees in areas nearby, many who have lived in tents and makeshift shelters for years on end with little hope for a normal life for themselves and their families. And imagine masses of desperately poor people in places like India, Eritrea, Bangladesh, Somalia and Nigeria, all within earshot and in plain sight every day. 

That's the real world. It's what God sees. It's about human beings God loves and deeply cares about. 

We should too.