Why do we hurt each other?

It isn't just war and terrorism. Right now, somewhere out there, someone is robbing a bank. Or beating an elderly lady just to steal a few dollars from her purse.

How is it that we as individuals cannot see that our common destiny is with each other? Every woman we strike, every child left broken at the side of the road, every hungry person not fed - every single one is our sister and our brother. We are individuals, yes. But we are individuals with a common cause, and a common purpose. To love one another, and to live in awe and wonder of what we have been given. Not to steal it like a thief in the night.

In one of my favourite books, about which I blogged earlier, "Life of Pi" - two men who have the same name go to a zoo. One is a muslim, the other an atheist. The atheist looks in awe at the zebra and recites its latin species name. The muslim, who has the same name, looks at the zebra, which he has never seen before, and says Allahu Akhbar (God is great.)

That passage is so lovely - because these two diametrically opposed men still essentially have the same reaction when confronted with the beauty before them. Yes, they each see this beauty through their individual theological (or atheological) prisms. But underneath it all, their communion is near perfect.

This - awe and wonder - is perhaps the true state of Adam and Eve (whether you accept it literally, or see it as a mythological foundation.) We have lost something, because nothing amazes us anymore, nothing surprises us, and nothing impresses us. Instead we rage in anger against the wind, and shake our empty scabbards at the heavens.

It is not the fault of God that we have lost our awe and wonder. He gave us this sense so that we might appreciate Him, and appreciate each other. We will not stop wanting more, wanting what is not ours, and hurting each other, until we re-learn how to be stunned and in awe of what He has already given us!