Is It Really a Wonderful World?

A news headline caught my eye this week that I thought would be good to use as a teaching point—and a good reminder for us. George Weiss, who wrote the song “What a Wonderful World,” died at 89 years old. The headline from Associated Press read, “'What a Wonderful World' songwriter Weiss dies.”

What attracted my attention was the seeming contradiction: the title of the song (What a Wonderful World) and then the news that the songwriter died. Death and beauty are in the same sentence—but that really does describe this world!

You see, the answer to whether it really is a “wonderful world” or not is both “yes” and “no.”

As we look at this world, we do see beauty, but we also see ugliness (like death). Only the Bible can explain such a seemingly contradictory world. Once (before sin) it was all “very good” (Genesis 1) and all beauty. But because of sin, ugliness entered in. Now, as Romans 8:22 (the whole creation groans) states, it is a world of ugliness admist the beauty.

One of the accusations I continually see from the secularists is how Christians can believe in a loving God even though the whole world has so much ugliness (such as death and suffering). Only believing the history in Genesis can explain the truth behind what we see.

However, the same Bible that explains the reason for a marred beauty also tells us that God is going to “restore” all things one day in the future. Christians, those who have put their faith and trust in Christ and received the free gift of salvation, will live forever in a place that will once again be all beauty.

Even though the death of any human being is very sad, this particular news item about the death of a songwriter is a good reminder to us that we do live in a fallen world because of sin, and that each one of us one day will die because of sin. That’s why we all need to make sure our heart is right with God.

You can read the Associated Press article on many websites such as the following: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100825/ap_en_mu/us_obit_weiss

Devotion

Love you therefore the stranger: for you were strangers

(Deuteronomy 10:19) Love you therefore the stranger: for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Step one to “win” souls is to love the hellbound lost sinner as we remember our former lostness, and with compassion, help see them saved by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ken