El Salvador
It’s a beautiful country in Central America. My wife and I visited many years ago shortly after we got married. The people were nice, the food was great, and the scenery was amazing. It seemed like such a bright place to be. In recent years, however, it has become dark.
The crime rate has skyrocketed. The gangs are out of control and basically, run the nation. The homicide rate a few years ago was three times higher than Mexico. About a month ago, the natives celebrated that they went 24 hours without a homicide when the rate had been 10 per day.
Did you know the name of the country means The Savior. The full name was Provincia De Nuestro Señor Jesus Cristo, El Salvador Del Mundo meaning Province of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World. How ironic that a people whose landscape is termed for a Man of love and peace is so full of hate and violence.
Imagine if you lived in a world which such gang violence. What if it was all that you knew? What if you knew nothing of the world outside this terror? We should all be thankful if the place we live is nowhere near this level of corruption. Yet, who do we thank? If you were consumed by these conditions, it would be easy to assume there is no God. There is no Savior.
If you were removed from this bondage of fear and trauma, who would you thank if you don’t believe in God? You could thank people, but they can turn their back on you like a gang member. You could thank the government, but it is just full of people that can be corrupted. You could thank nature, but that is ridiculous to give homage to something impersonal without free will.
God is the only One that will never be corrupted. He will never turn His back on You. He will allow people to turn their back on Him, but He is saddened by the hard heart. He is waiting to bless. Everything good that we have in this life comes from God. If we are nowhere near the dark situation in El Salvador, we have much to thank Him for! He is good, and He is El Salvador. Right now is a good time to thank Him for how your situation is much brighter than most on this earth.