What a shock it was to hear about the shootings and the bombing in Oslo, Norway, a few months ago. Events like these never make any sense, and in the country that hosts the Nobel Peace Prize, they seemed even more tragic. Deep-seated healing is needed when such tragedies occur.
In my own prayers, I find I have to lift all those affected to a safer place, the surer foundation of Spirit. I treat this picture of darkness with the Christ-light that brings comfort, arrests evil, and casts it out.
The book of Genesis in the Bible gives all credit for life to God, stating, “In the beginning God created . . .” (Gen. 1:1). It points to the fact that God is the ultimate source of all Life. Anything that doesn’t have God as its source, by this law of divine Life, has no place in God or His creation. It follows that evil doesn’t belong to God’s creation nor is it any part of God’s law. God is perfect. This means that in God’s perfection nothing less can exist. God is Life, and nothing can violate that Life.