The face of war | Greg Asimakoupoulos

Published 6:04 pm Monday, March 16, 2026

The day after Israel and the United States dropped bombs on Iran, I was watching coverage of the conflict on my television. A most disturbing image caught my attention. In the smoke rising above the smoldering debris, I saw the image of a face. I grabbed my iPhone and snapped a photo. I wondered if anyone else viewing this coverage of the war saw what I saw.

In the days that followed the initial invasion, that eerie countenance on my iPhone continued to haunt me. Ironically, that image is most appropriate. And the reason is this: War by definition is unsettling and unnatural. It paints a picture that is both troubling and expected. It is a portrait framed by human history.

The face of war is one we have seen far too often. It is frightening. It calls to mind the incalculable price tag of conflict. There is death, destruction, injuries, homelessness and sorrow. The face of war pictures suffering children, grieving parents, battle-weary soldiers and protesting critics.

Watching the first six Americans, who lost their lives in the Iranian conflict, return to U.S. soil in flag-draped caskets was most sobering. The dignified transfer of fallen soldiers always is. Perhaps it is the most graphic face of war. The tear-stained cheeks of family members welcoming the remains of their loved-ones is heart-wrenching reminder of the wages of war.

As Christians we regularly offer a prayer that Jesus instituted two millennium ago. We beseech our Father in Heaven that His Kingdom might come and that His will might be done on earth even as it is in His presence. With our Jewish friends and neighbors, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. With our children at neighborhood public school concerts, we sing “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”

And yet global confrontations continue to headline the front pages of our newspapers day after day. By the same token, endless longings for world peace are the stuff of which dreams are made. War and peace are flipsides of the same coin. War and peace is more than a timeless classic by Tolstoy. It is the two-step dance humankind has rehearsed on history’s stage since creation.

As students of the Bible we acknowledge that war has regularly punctuated the storyline of our ancestors from the beginning of time. From Adam and Eve’s expulsion from a paradise-like garden, tension, conflict and killing have undermined an attempt to return to Eden. Israel, in particular, has found itself in conflict with her surrounding nations in both ancient and modern times.

But it is not only Israel and the Middle East that have been irrigated by rivers of human blood. Eastern Europe, Africa, South America and Asia have paid the price of international hate. The world has been populated by orphans of war as most every continent can attest.

And there is no real hope that the frequency of wars will diminish. Jesus spoke of wars and rumors of war that would signal the beginning of history’s final days. Yes, even for the One who called himself the Prince of Peace, this sin-infested world in which we flawed humans scratch out a living is destined to be war-prone. But not forever. A Kingdom of enduring peace is coming.

In the meantime we face the ugly face of war on our knees. There we ask a good God to give us the faith to trust Him when bad circumstances engineered by people we don’t know find our servicemen and women on the frontlines. We face our fears by entrusting outcomes that are beyond our ability to control into the hands of leaders for whom we pray. And we face ourselves each morning in the bathroom mirror promising to do what we can to live at peace with those in our sphere of influence.

Let’s face it! Facing war as people of faith requires looking into the countenance of a God to whom all nations will one day bow. And in His face, we find our hope.

Guest columnist Greg Asimakoupoulos is a former chaplain at Covenant Living at the Shores in Mercer Island.