PICTURES OF PAIN

Every now and then these mails keep coming in... "Pictures of the year", "Award-Winning Pictures", etc, etc. I have a look at them, say "wow", and forget all about them. But recently two of these pictures hit home real hard. One of them is a supposed-award-winning photograph of a malnourished African kid with a vulture in the background waiting for the child to die. The other one shows the hand of a missionary holding the heart-breakingly thin hand of a hungry child in Africa.

I have seen these pictures before, but it never hit me as hard as it hit me when I saw them this time, and I think it's because I am now a Dad. My li'l girl is 2, full of life, very active, naughty and exuberant. I think about the fact that even as we try our best to provide all that we, as parents, can for our child's well-being and healthy growth, I cannot imagine the agony of the parents of that child as they watch helplessly, the life slowly draining out of their precious baby. Who knows... the parents may already be dead, and this child is now facing his last days alone, hungry and helpless!

It makes me wonder what wrong they did to deserve the poverty and misery that they go through... and what exactly I did right to deserve the luxuries that I enjoy. The answer to both... Nothing! I could have been that child, or worse, I could have been that parent! Though I already believe this, it hits me with a fresh wave of realization that God did not give me all that I have just to splurge it away on all the fancy stuff that I buy, half of which I don't even need. This does not mean I should not live in comfort or that I should not provide the best for my family. It reminds me to spare a little more than just a thought for the less fortunate... for those to whom a tenth of what I spend every month would put food on their plates and keep them alive.

I know, as parents, our primary responsibility is our own family. But can any parent look at these scenes of distress, shrug your shoulder, walk away not for a second feeling a growing lump in your throat? I sure cannot!