we need a Savior

Like most of the free world, I was surprised to wake up yesterday morning and hear that Barack Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize.  Of all the people who were nominated, how could such a previously prestigious award have been given to someone who met so few of the standards supposedly considered for such an honor? It is not really a secret that I disagree with most of President Obama's political and social views.  But, truly, this is not about that at all.  I must say that I feel sorry for him in this situation.  This award was not of his choosing, yet it draws undue attention to a bigger issue that has plagued him since his inauguration. It is an honor that has been bestowed on him that speaks volumes about the spiritual condition of the world in which we live.

President Obama was given this award based on the promise of change.  Our country and our world are looking to this one man to give them hope, to make things better.  It is a burden too large for any man to bear.  In a time when hope is all that many people have, they have placed it all on a fallible man who isn't capable, try though he may, of giving them the change or fulfillment that they seek.  As we see the world clamoring to pin their hopes on anyone who is eloquent of speech and swift to promise, we can be reminded and assured that we do now, as we always have, need a savior.  This savior, however, is not coming in the form of a world leader.  Not in the form of a Nobel Peace Prize winner, a mediator, a liberator or a dictator.  The hope that we so desperately seek has already come.  God has provided this Savior through His son, Jesus Christ.  It is only through Him that we have hope.  It is through Him that our daily bread will be provided, that peace will be accomplished, that evil will be defeated.  It is in Him that we can find refuge and rest.  Forgiveness and healing.

No man, no matter how powerful, will ever be able to be the Savior that we truly seek.  We were created to long for that salvation, yet we have turned from the One that can truly provide it.  I do pray for our President.  He has been placed in a position that no one could envy.  He is being asked to provide a world something that isn't his for the giving. 

Yes, we do need a Savior. I pray, as the world watches and waits for this great hope, that it will be found.  Only not through a man, but though Jesus Christ.