The World is Broken

The fact that the world is broken hardly needs arguing; there is empirical evidence ubiquitously running throughout our lives so plainly that even the most hardened skeptic is hard put to deny the fact.  I was reminded of this again the other day when I received an email from Michigan State University saying that one of the students there had developed a sudden illness and been taken to the hospital.  She died within hours.  They suspect she had the illness that leads to bacterial meningitis.  We found out later that night that she was the roommate of some friends of ours from Laingsburg (as far as we know their daughter did not catch the illness). So supremely sad.  A family suddenly devastated.

Their is something wrong with that isn't there?  We all know this intrinsically.  19 year old college students shouldn't die from sudden illnesses; people shouldn't get cancer; car crashes shouldn't cut short lives.  When these things happen we know; we feel! that the fabric of the universe has been torn unexpectedly; that something went terribly awry.

The fact that the world is broken is not a challenge to the worldview of the Christian faith.  Three chapters into the structure of the Bible and one already has an explanation for this.  The world is broken because of sin.  Bad things happen because "In Adam's fall, we sinned all."  Death, destruction, devastation, lives cut short, all due to the creation being under sin.  No other worldview besides Judeo-Christianity has an adequate explanation for why we all know that the world is broken. 

This fact is of great comfort in times like these.  Yes, the world is broken.  People get diseases; people die before their time; there is much heartache, much sorrow; but, God's purpose is to set it all right in and through Jesus Christ.  We wait, along with creation, for that time when God will set all things right.

Come, Lord Jesus.  Heal this brokenness.