Cloud Bowl

I have a picture in my mind that I’ll never again have the opportunity to catch on film, and I so regret not having a camera with me at the time.

I was returning from Cyprus, flying over the Med in sight of the Turkish coast. So mountainous!! There was a bowl shaped feature filled with clouds. The skies between the plane and the mountains were absolutely clear, just the fluffy white ones that filled the bowl. A bunch of cotton balls in a container on a counter, I thought. And I thought of those under the fluff, living in shadow and mist.

Our views of the world would be so different. Not just because I was in the sky in bright sunshine and they were in shadow. Our differences were defined by political lines. I was in a Cypriot plane that would not fly over Turkish airspace. Our pilot made a point of not straying into Turkish airspace. There would be ramifications for doing so.

Some of my co-workers were in a building when Turkish pilots – though they were fighter pilots – crossed the dividing line in Nicosia. There was concern that it was not just a by-chance intrusion; not just a power-play. There are fears lying just under the surface in divided countries.

We think of Israel/Palestine, or vice/versa, as being a divided country where hostilities could break momentarily – and have. They are not alone.

And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. (Mark 13:7)

It is difficult to be not troubled. Some of the places we hear of are repeats, for decades, without escalating out of their boundaries. World leaders tsk tsk, express disapproval and go on about business as usual, seemingly not troubled. One president allowed himself to be troubled. While not much changed, his approval rating dropped drastically. But the end was not yet. We continue on.

Hamas fires rockets from civilian apartment buildings. Israel fires rockets into those same apartments, then drives tanks over them. The right/wrong of that situation roller-coasters from day to day, and from each view expressed. Nothing in the past can be changed – yet that is what is required from both sides.

Muslims do not wish to live in a Jewish theocracy in a land they once owned. Jews require protection – provided by themselves – so as not to disappear into gentile furnaces.

It does make us long for the old, old promise:

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. (Isaiah 11:6)

… but the end shall not be yet. (Mark 13:7b)