A friend sent a newspaper clipping to me last week and it utterly bowled me over. An 11 year old girl in the midwest has given birth to a baby. Apparently, she has been raped by her mother’s “boyfriend.” Family and friends knew of the abuse…and when the police did the DNA testing and determined who the father of the baby was, they did not have far to look: he was still in the mother’s house.
Incredible abandonment.
Incredible cruelty.
Incredible.
I have not yet been able to move from “My God, my God, why….” to “now that this has happened, here is what we shall do.” I’m working on that — but I’m not there yet.
My prayer is an old on…”Lord, I believe…help my unbelief.”
Anything I would write now would be driven by my doubts, my despair over what I read. My prayer is to be a help to people who will be called to walk with this little girl. Pray for those who must step into the gap for her — we all need to move through this moment but first — let’s just face the facts.
Incredible abandonment.
Incredible cruelty.
And it happens everyday to thousands of children in our own midst who often give up on the adults around them, give up on hoping that we will be adults and protect them from the edges.
We have given our children so many reasons to never trust us again. That they do is amazing and a gift from God.
Today — intentionally look into the faces of the children around you.
Look for the signs.
Look into their eyes.
Look at them.
And fix your face so that they will not be afraid to look at you, come to you, trust in you, tell you what’s going on.
My, God, my God….of course, God does know all about this. His own child hung on a cross screaming these exact same words.
The hope for this child, the hope for all of us is that we will come to know that these are not the last words. Despair does not have the last word. Because of what God’s child did on the cross, the last word has to be a word of word of triumph and hope.
Amen
A Voice In Ramah 