From the Editors March 26, 2012 Issue

To preserve life

The Editors

Many have watched conditions in Syria with dismay and a great desire for a peaceful solution that will preserve life. The Christian Science Monitor has noted that thousands have already been killed, and the nation may need support for years in order to stabilize politically and socially (“Reasons for Obama to aid Syria—other than moral ones,” February 10, 2012).

Syria isn’t the only nation in the grip of conflict—Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, and Sudan and South Sudan are among several others. The chilling images of child deaths as well as those of civilian adults argue that life is cheap and easily taken, that God is absent. 

These events call to mind the book of Lamentations in the Bible, where the writer records the sufferings of his people—and then reminds himself that God is present. He says, “Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not” (3:57).

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