14 August | EVERYONE

THIS PLACE IS DEFILED

«Arise and depart, for this is not your rest; because it is defiled, it shall destroy, yes, with utter destruction.» Micah 2:10

Bathed by the azure waters of the Mediterranean Sea, Ceuta, a Spanish city in the north of Africa, was suddenly shaken. Its streets have been transformed into hideouts for immigrants who avoid being imprisoned by the police. The forest nourished by vegetation, the cracks opened in some concrete blocks, the cemetery and even the drains hide the anonymous shadows of people looking for “a safe place to live”. Men, women, and children; many of them wounded, fatigued, dirty, eat only thanks to the neighbors who take pity on them.

Nineteen-year-old Bilal and seventeen-year-old Yawad spend the afternoon crouching in a canal less than half a meter high that discharges the river’s waters. The canal, deep and dark, is full of algae and garbage, invaded by a nauseating stench, but they remain hidden there because they dream of one day arriving in a better place.

Israel at the time of the prophet Micah was in a similar situation, but God exhorted them to get up and walk because this was not the resting place that the Lord had prepared. It was a polluted and corrupted land.

These divine words come to us today. This land we live on deceives us easily. The glow of what we call happiness is fleeting and short-lived. There is a better land where the Father’s house is located, and from which we should never have left. This world is polluted and terribly corrupted. We are migrants. There is no more time to continue to wander on this planet of pain and suffering.

Take Action

Get out of where you are if you find yourself stuck. Set your mind to move forward in Jesus and let Him lead you to a better land. Experience the reality of eternal life now by knowing the God with whom you will live forever.