Baghdad: A True Story

The skies over Baghdad, Iraq, lit up like a Christmas tree as the tracers and artillery rained down over the city. She watched in horror as CNN showed the dazzle of lights shooting off in every direction. It was her brother that was now fighting in the Gulf War in January, 1991. Was he safe or was his mangled body lying somewhere in that huge barren desert? Her heart cried out and asked that question that so many others at that time were crying, "Why did God allow this to happen? Where was God in all of this?"

She ran out of her home to search for a place to cry and maybe pray.. Why was war so cruel? Where was her brother? Where was God? Her heart pounded out these bitter questions as she ran down the street to a local church. She tried to open the door but it was locked. She tried another door and nothing gave way. Everything seemed locked and barren, just like that Middle East desert and that ugly Desert Storm. Was God now locking her out for all of those lost years that she neglected Him? She looked to the sky and cried out, "Lord, I need You.. I need to know that You are hearing me..." All of a sudden, the most beautiful shooting star that she ever saw in her life soared across the sky. She knew at that moment that God had always been there for her while she endured an alcoholic and abusive father and when she had suffered sexual abuse, severe depression, an eating disorder and a break from her mother.

But she knew that God would be with her and her brother... and that all she needed to do was to give her life and trust to God entirely... and He would take care of the rest and supply her with healing. A peace now flooded her "desert storm." The peace did not come from the shooting star, but she took it as a sign from the Creator that He would work things out in her road of recovery. The pierced hands of Jesus Christ had finally caught her and were now holding her close to Him! The Light of the darkness annihilated all the confusion over her Baghdad.

How about you, my friend? Do you suffer from a "Baghdad" in your life? Maybe you would like God to give you a peace that would calm that "desert storm" within you? The same pierced hands of Jesus Christ can lead you to a peace that nothing in this world could ever give-- or take away.

In the Bible, John 8:12, Jesus said, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life." In Isaiah 60:1 it says "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." Finally, in John 14:27, Jesus says, "Peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."

As the Wise Men followed that Star of Bethlehem, I would encourage you to follow that same Christ whose hands were pierced so that you might find peace.

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Contributed by George Prins, email: mailto:gprins@freenet.npiec.on.ca