Seeing the Hand of God in War-Torn Ukraine

Bishop Paul Lanier  |  February 24, 2025

Writing at Charisma, Bishop Paul Lanier reflects on his recent trip to Ukraine, where he saw the hand of God at work among the destruction:

Just a week ago, I stood in the ruins of what was once a high-end, beautiful hotel in Odesa, Ukraine. I couldn’t help but think that just one week before that, I had been sitting in my comfortable home, watching a television news report about a rocket striking a hotel in Odesa.

Now I was there, in what remained of that same hotel. I marveled at how a rocket had reduced this opulent, grand old place to ruins. It struck me then so powerfully that it doesn’t matter if it’s the humble home of a single mother with small children, the broken-down shack of an elderly woman struggling to survive the frigid winter or a high-end hotel—war does not discriminate. It comes for everyone and for everything.