Sacred Land, Profane Actions

Two days ago the UNHCR found a 4-year-old Syrian boy wandering by himself across the barren land from Syria to Jordan.
       The boy had been separated from his family, who are among the millions of Syrians fleeing the unspeakable civil war in their country.
       For that 4-year-old boy the only thing to do was to keep going. The hope of being reunited with his family was to leave his home and to walk into the great unknown of the desert. Quite the metaphor for life if you ask me.
       Here is one of the great ironies of this tragic scene. The land on which this boy was wandering is the same ground on which Abram wandered from Ur of the Chaldees (present day Iraq) to "a land I will show you." This is sacred land, with a rich history of God providing for all nations (through Abram's seed).
       The land has been profaned in so many lands, most recently by a civil war which has cost more than 400,000 Syrian lives and displaced more than 4 million people to other countries. The sacred has become profane. This we must grieve deeply.
       And like that 4-year-old boy, we pray that the Syrian people and their neighbors continue to move forward out of the misery of this civil war and into God's peace for them.