a little girl died yesterday

A little girl died yesterday and I saw it. 
I don't know her name, but there is One who knows it most deeply.
In His image he made her. For beauty. For life. She was made to reflect who He is to the whole world. She was made radiantly. Just like you.

She looked as old and as young as my little girl.
Every scenario playing through my mind for what happened on that road is unfair. We were created equal. She and my daughter just as beautifully, thoughtfully and wonderfully made. 

But there was no equality for those two girls yesterday.

I came upon the accident scene moments after it occurred. I was on my way to visit the Noonday/Umucyo women who can now (barely but with dignity!) afford to send their young children to school instead of let them roam the streets. These women were noticed by Him and her, offered training for a potential job and then saw provision. They work hard. Their children are benefiting. I wouldn't say life is "just" for them... but it is much closer than it was. 

I was on my way with a friend to look them in the eye, greet them with a hug and rave over their recent work. They make such beautiful things and work so hard! But on my way there was an accident.

My celebration of the progress and success of some of MLK's dreams and Jesus' blood-purchased promises of fullness of life and hope and equality was interrupted by the reality that we still have so far to go.

My car was only third or fourth in the traffic line but the foot crowd was already forming. Her lifeless body waiting by the road.

Waiting for assistance. Waiting for attention. Waiting for arms to tenderly care for her. Waiting for medical emergency behavior and urgency.

Moments before the accident, though, her full-of-life body was waiting too. The details of her and her family's wait are not known to me:

- but if the world was just and people were experiencing true "shalom," that six year old girl would have been in school.

-if the world was just and people were experiencing true "shalom," that six year old girl wouldn't be walking alongside a dangerous road carrying dirty water for miles for her family.

Because of where my daughter was born--here or there--she would have received emergency medical care immediately. But that beautiful little girl, without apparent urgency, held lifeless in the arms of a man in the backseat of a car, was driven in the opposite direction of the nearest hospital. That hospital was less than a mile from where we were. But she would have been turned away because you have to have funds upon arrival even for a life-or-death emergency.

Martin Luther King Junior, whose birthday we celebrated the day this little girl tragically died, famously said "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." Oh friends, the arc was too long for that little girl and we can't just wait for it to improve. We're meant to be active as we await a Savior from heaven to make things fully right. 

MLK also said this:

“Time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to work to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”

This little girl and her family were waiting on the slow arc of justice to keep moving in their favor. But her death shows we aren't there yet. Don't fall asleep, friends. Your gifts, your strengths, your varied forms of prosperity are useful for bringing about justice and peace in this world. You have much to offer! 

We have made so much progress that's worth celebrating. The women at Umucyo have the opportunity to send their children to school. 

Several of the projects Hunter's team has been working on have made a significant impact in the lives of hundreds of people, giving them a hope for the future. (THAT'S MY HUSBAND!!) 

And 4 years ago this Thursday my family got to hold our son for the first time

"I have a dream that one day little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers." MLK

We have seen lots of progress.


But a little girl died yesterday and I saw it. And no scenario imaginable about it was fair. 

"Speak up and judge fairly, defend the rights of the poor and needy." Proverbs 31:9