A really thoughtful art installation where every person on the Earth is represented by one grain of rice. It's by James Yarker and is called "Of All the People in the World." I wonder how the 24,000 grains of rice representing the Israelites killed by God through the plague (or for that matter all the people killed by an "Act of God") compares to all of the people killed by other men.
"'Your servants have counted the soldiers under our command, and not one is missing. So we have brought as an offering to the Lord the gold articles each of us acquired -- armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings and necklaces -- to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord.'" [Numbers 31:50]
Isn't that just the way it is? Isn't it?! In today's reading, 24,000 Israelites die because of their sin, but not a single man goes missing in a war that brings total annihilation to the Midianites.
It's not what we fear will kill us that kills us. It's the things we do every day that slowly rob us of this life and the next. We see the death totals daily from Iraq and mourn for the parents and spouses and children while all around us greater misery and destruction and devastation goes on without notice or acknowledgement.
We fear our children going off to war. Never seeing that they're already in the middle of battle.
My post from last year on this date.
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