Remembrance Day Reflection

We had an assembly this Monday where we paused, as we do at this time every year, to remember those who have paid the ultimate price, that of their own life, to protect our national sovereignty and unique cultural heritage as well as those of our allies. Below is a still from that video which arrested my attention.

I doubt I'm about to say anything you haven't heard before, but this image brought home to me again not just the lunacy of war, but of this whole present age.

We are all used to seeing pictures of war victims with their heads half blown off or missing a limb. The thing about that kind of image is that it immediately draws me in on the level of personal suffering. When I see images like that, I rarely go beyond thinking Gosh how awful it would be to experience something like that.

But in this image, there is no suffering, no pain. Just work. Work is wholesome and good, gives a sense of purpose and satisfaction to life. To all intents and purposes, here we see a standard factory floor where everyone is diligently and admirably set about their work.

Yet they're making artillery shells that will blow up other people. What's more, these are women making the shells. These are those whose hands were given to them by God to nurse, to cherish, to nurture, to sustain, to give life. Here they are making shells that will maim, destroy and kill those who were unlucky enough to stand in their way and in so doing bring tears to mothers just like themselves, but in a far off distant land, where they are not heard.

I don't say this because I'm a pacifist. I'm not. The point is that this is a disordered, messed up world.

And whilst the closeness of war is at least 60 years in the past for most, if not all of us reading this, that lunacy continues - one of the many symptoms of our refusal to love the truth and be saved.

We need Jesus a lot more than we realise.