Tommy Wilson: Power of love will always trump the military madness hovering over us

The Grimshaw whanau witness the baptism of baby Jack at Aquinas College during the Hui Aranga Festival - hosted by Te Puna - Tauranga Moana over the weekend. Photo/Supplied

Baptisms are beautiful no matter what god you believe in and when it is your mokopuna (grandchild) being baptised, the beauty is personified.

Yesterday, among whanau and friends - at a gathering of good card-carrying Catholics, we witnessed our moko being baptised, and I could not help wandering throughout the service what kind of world he was being baptised into.

One thing I did know was the Easter holiday was much more than an extra day to shop.

For me, it is what Mahatma Gandhi said of Jesus.

"A man who was completely innocent offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act."

Who wouldn't want their child or grandchild to be baptised into the beliefs of such a man and allow his teachings to mould his brave new world?

A brave new world that seems to be getting crazier by the second.

One month we are fighting the worst fires in a hundred years down south, next minute - it is fighting a one-in-a-500-year flood down the road.

Now that is all sidelined by the world fighting for survival, courtesy of Kim Jong-Un of North Korea.

In the end, like most of us, you hope like hell that someone or something is going to save us just in the nick of time before the ref blows the full-time whistle.

All we have is faith and a favourite song.

Graham Nash's Military Madness has been high on my song list lately, as has Let it Be and John Lennon's Imagine. But the auto play humming through my mind is the Van Morrison classic "Lord if I ever needed someone- I need you".

Try as I may turn my mind off these troubling times, this salvation song keeps coming back to me like a loyal boomerang.

We all hum songs or whistle tunes when we need comfort in troubled times and for me, the troubling times of these last weeks have warranted a whole lot of humming.

If we ever needed someone to save us we will have to bring Jesus back off the bench.

I remember as a kid finding out about nuclear bombs and being so scared the world was going to end.

Up until then I was sure we would overcome death by taking a pill to counter ageing and every other kind of ugly illness.

It would be hotels and happiness forever and when we had enough, Jesus would ride into town on a white stallion and take us home - wherever that was.

Sadly, unlike all other fears, we can overcome by switching to another channel, this one is beyond reason as there is very little to rationalise about the threat of a nuclear war.

I guess that is why I am pinning my hopes on my Bro Jesus and his mates.

And that brings me back to a baby's baptism.

The world he faces is not so different than the one we faced growing up, given we both have this dark cloud of military madness hovering over us.

Sure, our waterways and whenua back then were a lot healthier, and our heroes like the Makenzie and Barrett Barrett Brothers didn't have feet covered in Fluro-coloured boots and arms raised in protest - like a gospel preacher on the footy field.

But we human beings have two trumps over anything atomic.

Our faith in faith and the power of love - coupled with the belief life is like Easter and its superhero Jesus.

The comeback is always stronger than the setback.