Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, November 28, 2025
This past Tuesday I stopped by Third Place Books, a combination bookstore and community center in Lake Forest Park. I’d brought along my sermon notebook, and I had settled down to do some work on the outline, when a tall young man, who looked like a college student, drifted over and set down his water bottle and a thick paperback. He then disappeared, maybe in search of food at one of the eateries in the building.
As you can see in the above photo, the book is Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, the famous Russian writer’s story about the French invasion of Russia during the Napoleonic era. I was immediately curious about why this man was reading it. Was it an assignment for a history or literature class? Had a friend recommended it?
As it turns out, I never saw the man or the book again. I headed over to the bookstore section in a little while, and when I came back, the book, the bottle, and then man were nowhere to be seen.
The subject of war and peace – whether cast in Russian terms or otherwise – has fascinated humanity for thousands of years. Why is evil present? Can evil be overcome, and if so, how and when? And by whom?
Click the link just below. It gives some Bible clues about this under the interesting heading,
“Why didn’t God kill or destroy Satan?”
https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/why-didnt-god-destroy-satan