O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting?
Moscow has had a terribly, horribly hard week. The beginning of the Easter Sunday celebration was hailed by two young women committing suicide by blowing themselves up on the metro. Forty people lost their lives.
We grieved for those who lost their lives including the two women who strapped bombs to their bodies, who came from an unreached Muslim people that have suffered many atrocities. Without the knowledge of a holy, loving God who gave His Son to save them, there is no hope for Russians, Americans, Tajiks, Chechens, Dagestanians. When ugly, nightmarish tragedies like Moscow’s take place, all that is left is bitterness, despair, and hatred.
The effects of the bombing were immediately felt. Central Asians were harassed in the streets. Women wearing head coverings were assaulted. Life became harder for people with darker skin and hair.
After the bombings, there were people who tried to make money on this charging extra for taxi services, there were those who tried to use that to promote their political views, but what is more important, there were those who managed to keep their sanity in the metro and helped each other out of the metro, passed children over the top of their heads, came to give their blood to help those injured victims.
It’s difficult to ride the metro again. We tend to eyed the people around us, looking for anyone with a suspiciously bulky jacket or an angry glare.
As my husband and I went to the overnight church service at the end of the week, he had a picture of Christ standing right in the middle of the train cars, damaged by the explosion. We need Christ more than ever… as we go down the metro or start off on the airplane.
“Kristos Voskres! Va Istinu Voskres!” is the traditional Russian Easter greeting. (Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!) He is risen and is the only One Who can offer hope and Life to Russians, Americans, Tajiks, Chechens . . . May the joy of knowing Him will continue in your life long after this Sunday!
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