The same old story--Lena

Despite the distance between us and the fighting in Gaza it seems to be never far from our minds. I believe that despite what politicians would have us believe the world isn't all that complicated. In fact, looking around at the conflicts in the world today (Israel and Gaza included) I'm reminded of my little sister and I when we were growing up. You see, despite being pretty good friends as children we fought. We fought a lot. In fact anyone who knew us from about age 2 to about 20 knew about our fights. We were notorious. First I would like to say that despite the narrative you are about to read my sister and I love each other very much. My sister is all grown up and a good wife to a good husband (Neil), and an amazing mother to two of my adorable nephews (Riley and Blake).

I can honestly say that I don't remember what most, if any, of our fights were about. Sometimes it was our rooms, sometimes clothes, sometimes cleaning, and sometimes, seemingly, about nothing. Like the fighting in Gaza, the reason doesn't seem to matter all that much. Many of our fights would culminate in both of us grabbing huge handfuls of hair and pulling with all of our might. Eventually we would end up with our heads practically touching the floor yelling, "YOU LET GO!" "NO YOU LET GO!" Eventually we would tire out and decide to let go at the same time. We usually had several false starts where we would count to 3 and one or both of us wouldn't let go. When we finally did release each other, it was never without casualties...we would both have huge chunks of hair left in our clenched fists. Just like neighboring countries, we didn't trust each other to do the right thing, and apparently justly so. Both of us would have had our reasons for doing what we did, and feel totally justified in doing it no matter how much it hurt(again, just like our neighboring countries), neither of us willing to say we were wrong. After awhile both of us started losing feeling in our scalps and the loss of hair became commonplace, the same way people can become desensitized to the mounting death toll around them. Thankfully my sister and I have grown up, and an even bigger blessing gained God's Holy Spirit. We don't always agree, but the hairs on our head can go on to live long lives these days. God willing, Christ will return soon and the people on earth can gain peace like the hairs on our heads.