and a little child shall lead them

this is excerpted from an article on msn...

"Is everything spinning out of control? Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism....

Recent natural disasters around the world dwarf anything afflicting the U.S. Consider that more than 69,000 people died in the China earthquake, and that 78,000 were killed and 56,000 missing from the Myanmar cyclone.

Floods engulf Midwestern river towns. Is it global warming, the gradual degradation of a planet's weather that man seems powerless to stop or just a freakish late-spring deluge? It hardly matters to those in the path. Just ask the people of New Orleans who survived Hurricane Katrina. They are living in a city where, 1,000 days after the storm, entire neighborhoods remain abandoned, a national embarrassment that evokes disbelief from visitors.

Food is becoming scarcer and more expensive on a worldwide scale, due to increased consumption in growing countries such as China and India and rising fuel costs. That can-do solution to energy needs — turning corn into fuel — is sapping fields of plenty once devoted to crops that people need to eat. Shortages have sparked riots. In the U.S., rice prices tripled and some stores rationed the staple."

it made me think of what Jesus said. "And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place ... Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world." (matt 24:6,7) now, i'm no crazy, sign waving "the-end-is-near" fanatic, but i take comfort in knowing that, if you'll pardon the simplicity, "he's got the whole world in his hands." not just my future, but our future as a planet. and it makes me mindful of the rest of matthew 24 - be watchful, hold fast, don't let your love grow cold. don't panic, and don't be decieved. it's easy to panic in the face of all the pain and confusion we are faced with every day... i am particularly prone to it. but i am going to hold on to that little children's song... he's got the whole world in his hands. thank God.