First, the asylum seekers in Villawood detention centre are copping it, as the row of violence and destruction have now caused Immigration Minister Chris Bowen to announce that anyone who acts out in this way will be denied permanent protection visas. These rooftop sitters and tossers have caused quite a bit of stir the last week or so in Sydney.
Bowen said, "This type of behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated."
Yesterday two dingoes attacked a 3-year-old girl on Fraser Island in Queensland. Today they were put down. The girl was hospitalized with cuts to her legs, but will be fine, according to her father, David Kennedy, in today's interviews.
South African-born, Sydney lawyer Mark Treisman and his wife Haylene were holidaying with Mr Treisman's family when they went to Ruffey Lake Park in Doncaster near Melbourne yesterday. According to the Herald Sun, "The couple, their three sons, daughter and niece were walking along a path when a swarm of wasps descended on them and attacked, stinging the group dozens of times.
The couple's 11-month-old son, Gabriel, passed out after the attack. “It was very, very frightening,” Mr Treisman said. “Maybe it was just the fatigue, but he had passed out. My wife and I thought that we had lost him.” "
Wow, who would imagine so much violence, and so many attacks.
The news, of course, is filled with such, like in Libya and Afghanistan and we are used to those. But so close to home? So near to us? So possibly coming to roost in our world tomorrow?
That compartmentalization, that separation of trouble from us, that makes us feel comfortable. That makes us feel safer. And in a lot of ways, that's a good thing. Most parents want that for their children. Certainly Mr Kennedy and Mr Treisman want that for their children. I want that safety for my children.
But reality is that we all will cop things in our lives. We will all suffer. We will all experience pain and suffering and sometimes it's warranted, and sometimes it just happens.
Tonight ends the Jewish holiday of Passover, an annual reminder of both the bondage of the Jewish people in the land of Egypt some 3,500 years ago and the divine response of delivering us with an outstretched arm and a mighty hand. We remember the 10 plagues and the lambs and the blood of the lambs which saved us.
Two days ago the Christian world celebrated Easter as well. That is a holiday which celebrates and memorializes both the resurrection of the Messiah Y'shua (Jesus Christ) and his death which precedes it by a few days. The suffering of the Messiah looked fairly bleak, suffering is never something we would choose. And no father would choose suffering for his child.
Except the Bible says something about this.. "But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand." (Is. 53.10)
God the Father sent his only son, not to avoid the suffering, but to die for us. And that 'sending' and that 'pleased to crush him' was the only way we could be bought back. Our sin had separated us from the Lord, and God had to redeem us, all of us, in one fell swoop-- the death of Messiah. Life for life, blood for blood, the great exchange.
Thank you, Lord, for your love for us and for all people. For South African lawyers, for Queenslanders and asylum seekers, for all of us. God's love is real. Receive that love today by faith. Believe in God; believe also in Y'shua.
What do you think?
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