I am optimistic....

"....about human nature. That's why I will trust the people to do the right thing" said David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party on Sunday.

The trouble with sound bites is that they can bite you in the bum. On Monday our TVs and newspapers were filled with news of the awful shootings in Nickel Mines Pennsylvania.

Yet I too am an optimist.

I am an optimist because the God of all the earth will do right. He has not washed his hands of the human race in all its wrongdoing and folly as well He might. He made a plan to send his son Jesus to suffer and die and take on himself the consequences of it all. To make a way back to the kind of relationship God wants with us.

I am an optimist even though His plan means bad things will happen as He gives time and waits for humankind to respond.....because it gave me time to respond as well as FreeLanceNerd and El Pasto.

I am an optimist because in that plan Jesus chose a path of suffering so that God knows more than ever I can the pain of the death of a son and is with me in the hard moments.

I am an optimist because as a result of that plan I can go to meet FreeLanceNerd and El Pasto one day.

I am an optimist because God is never taken by surprise. He does not have or need an emergency plan.

I am an optimist because I have hope........ in the God of all the earth.... and heaven as well.