FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART OP-ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
The images at the Kabul airport have been very emotional. After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and finally the City of Kabul, thousands of people rushed to Hamid Karzai International Airport. Most of the crowds were outside the gate, but some broke through and gathered in normally restricted areas on the airport’s aprons. One cropped view released by the Maxar satellite group showed people on the airport runway, with military or security vehicles parked nearby. Some people were climbing on the plane on the tarmac so that the evacuation of American Citizens and eligible Afghans, who had worked for the Americans and Allies during the war effort, had to be stopped.
After some order was restored and the evacuation efforts continued, nearly 100,000 people have been evacuated at the time of writing. At the same time, one must be shocked by the number of people stuck at the gate; some became frustrated and turned away or stopped by the Taliban before reaching the gate. The images of the little children clinging to their parents or sitting on mats waiting for their parents to be processed at the airport are profoundly striking. Though efforts at blaming are many, this operation is characterized as one of the greatest post-war evacuations by an American army. And for those who will admit the truth about war, it is clear that wars are messy and defeated armies are never the ones who go home and throw parades.
Of course, the first thing that appealed to me to reflect on the storming at the Kabul airport gate is that many of the persons who presented themselves did not have the necessary papers to be present. However, they saw a door opening to freedom: whether in the United States of America or some other place, freedoms that they do not or will not have in Afghanistan.
The women and girls are feeling particularly vulnerable under Taliban rule because they will not be able to have the right to education or the other freedoms they enjoyed over the 20 years of the war. Many men, too, wish for the freedoms claimed in other parts of the world. But they are not sure what will happen, so they decided to storm the gate.
Let me compare what happened in Kabul to the biblical story of the Great Flood (Genesis 6-9) when the door of the Ark was shut by the hand of God (Genesis 7:15), and the rain began to fall, and the multitude began to knock on the door, asking Noah to let them in. Unfortunately, there are no satellite images that recorded the event. Although biblical history makes clear references to it, and the geological records show evidence, many today doubt the biblical record and the traditional interpretations that declare it; yes, many deny it. When the door of the Ark was shut, and the rain began to fall for 40 days, people rushed to the door and wanted to get in, but it was too late. Only Noah and his family and the animals selected by God were able to be safe in the Ark.
The storming of the gate is projecting my mind to one other event, namely the description of what will happen when Christ returns as the Bible declares and the New Jerusalem descends. The picture portrayed in Revelation 20 that millions of the lost and Satan and his angels will gather together to attack the City of God, and then, fire will come down from heaven and “burn them up.”
Of course, the other side of the story is that the millions of those who have obeyed God and gotten their legitimate credentials, by their acceptance of Christ, will be safe inside the City. The picture of the rescue of the saved of the earth might seem trite to those who are not Bible believers, but if the Kabul story is true, and the Flood story is true, and the resurrection of Jesus is true, then we can believe that this description of the gathering of God’s people and the storming of the gate at the end is true.
In preparing the world for this final rescue, I can imagine God dialoguing with the angels as the unknown poet asks parents to think of their children:
I think ofttimes as night draws nigh
Of the old farmhouse on the hill,
Of a yard all wide and blossom-starred
Where the children played at will.
And when the night, at last, came down
Hushing the merry din,
Mother would look around and ask,
“Are all the children in?”
Tis many and many a year since then,
And the house on the hill
No longer echoes to children’s feet
And the yard is still, so still.
But I see it all, the shadows creep,
And though many years have been
Since then, I can hear mother ask,
“Are all the children in?”
I wonder if when the shadows fall
On the last short, earthly day,
When we say good-bye to the world outside
All tired with our childish play,
When we step out into that other land
Where mother so long has been,
Will we hear her ask, just as of old,
“Are all the children in?”
It is worthwhile to prepare for the final event and not wait to storm the gate, but to be safe inside the City. To parents, I would say, “be safe with your children.”
