Night and Day (The Son is Rising)

Today I saw beauty in nature that is indescribable. I was in awe at the sheer elegance of it all. Raw, aesthetic, still, awe inspiring.

 

 

What a stark contrast to what I saw less than 24 hours before.

Last night we went to the red light district and walked along streets lined with strip bar after strip bar and night club after night club.

Men and women stood among the crowds of people and flashed signs in our faces for sex games, drugs, and alcohol. Scantily clad girls stood on tables and danced on poles. Men walked around with a girl on their arm that was young enough to be their daughter. Families walked through the crowded, chaotic streets with children on their shoulders.
We passed by a bar of women from other countries who had been trafficked illegally against their will…

Down one particularly dark side alley, men hit signs filled with vulgar words with wooden poles to get the attention of passerbys, hoping to allure them into the strip clubs they worked for. Lust and pleasure ran rampant. One of the night clubs was rightfully called “The Devil’s Playground” and another “Diablo’s a Go Go.”

 

I almost burst into tears as my heart broke.

Day and night.

On the islands everything was clear. The sun shone down brightly.

The sun doesn’t shine on Bangala street.

But the Son does.

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.”
Isaiah 60:1-2 ESV

Jesus came to heal the sick and set the captives free from darkness.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;”
Isaiah 61:1 ESV

These people, the devil thinks he owns. But the Son is rising…