WHITE AS SNOW

I woke up this morning with a very heavy burden for the people of Afghanistan and all of us who are caught up in this struggle/fear dance and left seeing killing as the best/only option.

Music/poetry/story/love/grace have a way of seeping into the deep places and doing something to us so different than what the rhetoric does to us. Such is the song White as Snow from U2's new CD.

Will we ever learn that violence will never produce peace because violence/force/domination has never set an imprisoned heart and mind free? My heart's cry this morning is to see a people living free of the destructive mistaken notion that the blending of the cross/the redemptive plan of God, with the flag of any nation does anything other than leave us all more deeply confused. It just keeps breaking hearts the world over.

WHITE AS SNOW

Where I came from, there were no hills at all
The land was flat, the highway straight and wide
My brother and I, we'd drive for hours,
like we'd years instead of days
Our faces as pale as the dirty snow

Once I knew there was a love divine
Then came a time I thought it knew me not
Who can forgive forgiveness when forgiveness is not
Only the lamb as white as snow

And the water, it was icy
As it washed over me
And the moon shone above me

Now this dry ground, it bears no fruit at all
Only poppies laugh under the crescent moon
The road refuses strangers
The land, the seeds we sow
Where might we find the lamb as white as snow

As boys we would go hunting in the woods
To sleep the night shooting out the stars
Now the wolves are every passing stranger
Every face we cannot know
If only a heart could be as white as snow
For only a heart could be as white as snow