In Spite Of The Way That It Is
I want to paint you a picture of a world. It is not a perfect world. It never could be. The lion is not yet laying with the lamb, nor is there perfect harmony. Discordant notes sound across the horizon; sometimes smoke blurs the sky. Sunflowers climb along side chain-link fences, skylines are peppered with scaffolding, and somewhere, someone looks out a train window with tears streaming down their face. It is not a perfect world. It never could be. But in this world, a Latter-Day Saint finds herself inside a Catholic cathedral, in the Chapel of Our Lady of Zion. She is trying to come to terms with tragedy, and with all of the complexities that comes from living as a person striving for perfection in an imperfect world, with an imperfect body and mind. She isn't sure how to balance justice and mercy within herself. Grace has always been so easy to grant others, and so impossible to give herself. She is looking at the candles, all but one unlit, and thinking of her Itali...