innocence again

"Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not recieve the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all."
-Jesus


When you go through a world such as this one, the perversion and confusion of it all changes the way you see things. Your eyes begin to take on a new lens. It doesn't matter what your life has looked like, where you've been, or who've known. Some people have seen more than others, but we have all seen enough.

When I thought briefly about what I have seen in my 21 short years, it broke me.
I have seen injustice as thick as a blanket large enough to cover a nation and silence those who cry for mercy. I have seen the hunger of orphans swallowed up by the greed of rich bureaucracy. I have seen prisons full of mothers who left behind children that had no choice but to grow up in their absence. I have seen dreams put to death in favor of efficiency, and desire sacrificed on the altar of best interest. I watched the stories of lust replacing love, and pity being substituted for compassion.

This is no Eden.

All of these horrors and numerous others find their way in front of my face and slowly into my heart. They assault me night and day until I want to shut my eyes to the world completely and give way to the cynicism waiting to consume me.
Yet how could I listen the voice of a loving Father if I let the things that I have seen teach me about trust?

Bitterness does not remind me of the stories He told of abundant life, though it is an easier course and a wider road. I could certainly swallow the poison of hopelessnesss and lay aside the difficulties of faith and expectation. It would nothing more than a natural response to the state of the world.

Or.....there is another option.

I could get new eyes. Eyes of innocence.