Hope in the City...

Hello dear Friends! I was looking through some old photos saved on my computer, and came across this photo of some skyscraper buildings I had snapped through the car window... it was taken in  downtown Chicago, when I visited my friend Heidi there in 2008...

Now, I myself live near a big city.... far from the shores of Lake Michigan, near the Sunny Gulf Coast of the U. S.....and, though it's many miles South of Chicago... my city and that great city share many things.... there is something you will notice as drive through ANY city in ANY Country on this earth.... 

There is always a part of the city that seems prosperous; with it's inhabitants driving nice, beautiful vehicles... wearing the latest styles and fashions...seeming to have the best of everything.... their part of town is well-manicured; flowers grow there.... grassy lawns expand up to border Beautiful homes...

And then, if you keep driving for very long, you see the prosperity slowly begin to dwindle away....the views from your car window aren't quite as lovely...there may be some apartments crammed together.... and no flowers grow there.... all seems dingy and has a gray cast to it......

If you keep on driving, into the heart of the city... "downtown" we call it..... you begin to notice shuffling, hunched-over figures.... some may be carrying a ratty old backpack they picked up, who knows where..... or may even be pushing a grocery cart that contains a few dirty shopping bags, filled with who knows what.....a few meager pieces of a "life" the street person has managed to hang on to...

Even though the contrasts between these areas of Big - City life seem glaringly obvious..... there IS a common thread.....and that thread is a deep- down need for God's Mercy and Grace and His Saving Power.....which can take a person that's so degraded and worn - down by sin.... and make them into a new Creature in Christ Jesus!!!  And it doesn't matter if that person is a member of the highest echelons of Society.... or the loneliest Bum on Skid Row......each of them, man or woman, boy or girl, young, old, or in - between.... can have Hope, Peace, and Joy like nothing they've ever felt before.... if he or she will seek God with their whole Heart! The Book of Jeremiah in the Holy Bible says of God, in chapter 29:13 "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye search for me with all your heart." and, reading God's Word on into the book of Acts, we get to chapter 2,  where we find the beautiful, wonderful Plan of Salvation.....Oh, my Friends!!!.... that will bring lasting Hope to the City.... or the country, or anywhere there's a human heart and soul, I promise you!   

I love this song penned by Carrol McGruder.... It's called "We have a Savior":
Verse 2:
Now, I've walked down the sidewalks,
Of bright Neon cities,
Where skyscrapers reach for the sky,
I've seen the rich and the famous, in glamour and glitter,
Search for some Joy in the Night,
While a few blocks from mainstreet,
In an old cardboard ghetto,
Another Un-known life is lost,
But whether Penthouse, or Skidrow,
There's one thing I still know...
There's hope in the Old Rugged Cross!