I shiver from the cold as I sit in my room, carefully studying the smallest of frost designs on the window before me. Slowly my gaze shifts through the branches of a nearby dead oak tree while my arms rest on the window pane. My thoughts? They ride off into the world of destruction and hate.
A phone rings in the International Center at Harvard University.
“Sir, I’m not kidding! In six minutes a bomb will go off at the International Center. And, don’t forget, the janitor is in there too.”
Four officers enter and begin a frantic search which ends with sounds of an explosive roar. Six suspenseful minutes have passed but their evidence remains. Windows are empty ugly holes in cracked and broken walls and the floors are strewn with shattered heavy glass. Sections of the roof have crashed and what was International Center no longer is.
Today, it seems, people’s standard of justice dictates that, if you do not like something, make it so you do like it. If you do not like someone, somehow get rid of him. Brute will overpowers fear, disorder rules the law, hate destroys pity, and power rises against power. Genuine peace and people’s concept of peace forever engages in an endless struggle.
In the midst of this kind of world, lives the church, striving to live up to her commitments. But slowly the world tries to steal away our Christ, challenging us to follow their maddening search for meaning.
Desperately they seek to tear us apart and crowd us in roads we refuse to travel. Just recently we evidenced this again as they tried shoving their way into the Christian School. Proposal C reached out eagerly to destroy the schools for which we have fought for so many years. No longer do they desire to assist our schools with public funds, give programs in speech correction and remedial reading. Nor do they wish to offer services such as street crossing guards, health and nursing aids, or give assistance to mentally, physically and emotionally handicapped. They want to exclude all driver training and use of public school property for any sports activities sponsored by the Christian Schools. If Proposal C or any similar proposal ever is accepted, possibly we would collapse; we would not be able to carry one. Sadly, this has only begun. They will strongly and boldly march on, even through brick walls! Perhaps one day they will not only blow up International Center but they will also blow up my…church? They will not stop! They march on; I see them coming and now I shiver from fear. I no longer feel the cold in my room and tears burn in my eyes because they are coming, pursuing to in some way destroy…me?
Again my gaze slips back through the branches to that same window. I am perplexed to discover that the sun had smiled away the delicate designs of frost. Absorbing momentarily the sun’s warmth, I close my eyes and see the cross shining through the darkness of future days. Rising and turning from the window, I cast the fears and doubts of those days before The Almighty Son.

Originally Published in:
Vol. 30 No. 8 December 1970