When Shopping Mall Turns War Zone

Westgate mall, Nairobi

We’ve seen it in the USA, but not to the horrific extent of the upscale shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Al-Shabab militants, the Islamists trying to control Somalia, attacked innocent people at this commercial symbol of Kenya’s prosperity. They let Muslims go free and killed innocent men, women, and children.

Sorry to talk about this kind of stuff so often these days. It just keeps coming, and I grieve every time.

My mother lived in neighboring Tanzania for eight years (I was just a little kid at the time), and she said the Muslims and Christians all got along then. The rise of Islamic terrorism and the insane calamity it causes seems to be a Satanic whipping up of violence against governments, Muslims who believe differently, and innocent people in general–particularly Christians and Jews.

I can’t help but increasingly think that something big and sinister is growing, and will keep growing until the end times. Satan seems to be working furiously. Yet above anything human and anything demonic, God still has a bigger plan. In that I take hope.

If God were to watch the news, what would he see? Certainly nothing that surprises him. He would rejoice with those who rejoice and grieve with those who grieve, and perhaps he would see pieces of his big, ultimate picture moving into place.


Photo credit:  Reuters