Picture a glorious stage revealed from thick velvet curtains. Rows and rows of seats house diverse audiences that laugh, cry, and enjoy production after production. The Greekesque columns on the outside of the theater witness children running around them, squealing through a game of tag. They support a bright red roof that would keep citizens safe from extreme weather and the common rainfall in southern Ukraine. However, it will prove unable to withstand a high-powered air bomb, dropped Wednesday, March 16, by Russian forces.
The Mariupol Drama Theater, dating back to 1887 on Theater Square, had been acting as the largest bomb shelter amidst the ongoing siege of the coastal city. Ukrainian officials estimate as many as 2,500 civilians have already been killed, with thousands still trapped, 1,300 of whom had sought refuge in the theater; only 130 have been rescued. No one knows the full extent of the impact. No one knows how many are still alive.
“People are clearing away the rubble themselves,” former Donetsk region head Sergiy Taruta told Ukrainian television. “There is no rescue operation because all the services that are supposed to rescue people, to treat them, to bury them, these services no longer exist.”
Liudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights, according to CNN, called the attack “an act of genocide and a terrible crime against humanity as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”
Satellite images show that the word “children” was spelled out on two sides of the theater before being bombed. Maxim Kach, a Mariupol city government official, added that the building was for civilians, with only women and young children and not military personnel hiding within it. Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Oleskii Reznikov deemed the person responsible a “monster.”
As an American, seeing the damage in Ukraine is devastating in pictures. I cannot fathom what it’s actually like to flee from my childhood home to find shelter in a place built for community and joy, only to be trapped under a mountain of debris, cement, and rubble. It makes me question everything, especially since most can agree that Russian President Vladimir Putin is one man who allowed his personal lust for conquest to spark a full-on war with innocent people deemed collateral damage.
These incidents make me think world peace is somewhat a fool’s dream. Even as this war rages, Afghanistan is still in the midst of a humanitarian crisis against the Taliban. Cameroon is caught in deadly conflicts with no end in sight. Two Palestinians were shot and killed in clashes against Israeli forces. China is facing its worst COVID-19 outbreak since early 2020, after a Boeing 737 crashed into the southern mountains on Mar. 21 with no indication of any survivors. An earthquake hit Japan on Mar. 17 killing four and injuring at least 90 people. Everywhere one turns, there is hurt and brokenness that seems to have no solution.
Then, I remember where peace, defined as the absence of sickness, war and social strife, comes from. Christian encyclopedia writer J.L. Gillman claims it’s ordained by God through creation in Genesis 1 as each part in the cosmic order “finds its meaning and function as it conforms to God’s purpose.” And I agree. God’s original intention for creation was to experience fellowship with Him. Once sin entered the world, it separated us from God and damaged the world around us. John 16:33 says that we will face tribulation. Nowhere does God promise our lives will be easy. However, we get through the tribulations when we realize God and peace go hand-in-hand. You cannot have one without the other.
God, our all-knowing and all-loving Creator, gives us peace “which surpasses all understanding” when we are in relationship with Him as an overflow of who He is (Philippians 4:27). If we try to seek this peace elsewhere, through corrupted ideas and politics controlled by corrupt people, we will only experience more disappointment and sin that leads to more corruption. It’s a horrible cycle because it creates senses of hopelessness outside of our control.
Yet, who controls what we can’t? God does. Who has a plan where war and death are defeated and peace stretches across the earth? God does. Jeremiah 29:11 says His plan brings prosperity and hope for our futures.
Peace on Earth is achievable, even though right now it seems as though it isn’t. But we need Jesus. We cannot do this life, and experience all of its true peace and goodness, without Him.
