'the wolf shall dwell with the lamb they will neither harm nor destroy'

For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Isiah 11

Perhaps one of the few things that believers and unbelievers would all agree upon is we live in a broken world. All the great regions talk of salvation a better time to come or like the Buddists a renunciation of the self. As if there is something inherently unclean or wrong with our current condition. Atheists seem either to subscribe to the ' life nasty brutish and short ' view or ' it's not perfect but it is what it is ' a cosmic game of chance nothing more. This brokeness manifests itself on a macro level of suffering with wars, famine, disease and on a personal level in the guise of broken relationships or a slew of other personal tragedies violence and abuse. It seems as if built into the fabric of things is the relentless march of chaos. Even nature itself with its earth quakes floods and tidal waves speaks of dis- harmony and although a lot of them may be ascribed to man made global warming and other horrors phenomenon such as volcanoes and hurricanes are in themselves agents of suffering.

Yet in this strange old world we are also constantly reminded of good that there is a better place. Paradoxically good and bad inhabit the same bed. I remember clearly a summers day many years back laying back in the long grass watching the larks play in a cloudless sky a scene of perfect harmony whilst down the hill two magpies were happily engaged in pecking the eyes from a baby lamb. I find it difficult to believe in an Eden but I can't help feeling linked in someway to a past that was better which was very different to the duality of today. There must be a reason for good and why it echoes of a different place from which we have allowed ourselves to be parted and have strayed away from.

All journeys require a map and presuppose a destination. I believe the life of Christ provides the path and the promise of a healed world to come' I have overcome the world' that a door has been opened that cannot be closed and through it the waters of knowledge will come to cover us all.