Please Don’t Look Away

Posted on 06.05.07 in Faith and there are

A couple days ago I received a forwarded email and for some reason I felt compelled to scroll past the eternal recipient list and actually read it.

It crushed me.

The email contained about a dozen images of the famine in Sudan. Everything in me wanted to look away, but I made myself look. I forced myself to acknowledge that these children are just like mine. If they had enough to eat, they’d say they don’t like spinach. If they had enough to drink they’d say they want juice instead of water.  If they had the energy, they’d play tag, laugh and sing.

This picture was particularly gripping. It won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize. It depicts a small girl (about the age of my girls) crawling to a UN food station about a half mile away. A vulture waits behind her.

I wrote this in response to all the thoughts and feelings and emotions that the image stirred in my heart.

A child cries
I build my wall higher
brick by costly brick
until I am safe
safe from need
safe from fear
safe from everything
she daily bears

A child cries
and so do we
shed our tears of excess
as she sheds hers of need

A child cries
we must cry too
for the food
we’ve withheld
from the hungry
to ensure our comfort
that was never
ours to own

A child cries
Oh God of Heaven
let me cry too
let me weep
let me mourn
for the poor
for the hungry
for the widow
for the orphan
yes, God for the orphan
please God for the orphan

for they are us
a different color
but they are us
a different place
but they are us

fathers, mothers
sons and daughters
they are us, they are us

A child cries
and I am discontent
with comfort
I have seen
death in the eyes of a child
I cannot live life for myself
alone
again

A child cries
and I must cry too
So, now
what is it that I will do?

I have some ideas brewing about how we can move from inspiration to action, but for now here are a few links to organizations that make a difference in the lives of children like this little girl.

Compassion International
Blood Water Mission
World Vision

How do we (can we, should we) reconcile our excess with her need? 

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