I heard about it on Facebook – not in the newspaper or CNN or the nightly news. On Facebook. It happened three weeks ago – over 200 Nigerian girls were kidnapped in the middle of the night from their school dormitory by men linked to a terrorist group.
They are still missing. Nobody who is anybody is doing anything about it.
Three weeks. Gone.
Three weeks of mothers, brothers, fathers – worried, wondering, waiting.
( photo with Youtube video at the end of this post)
I look into the eyes of this girl and my own brim with tears.
I look into this young girl’s solemn face and I can’t imagine being in her mother’s place.
I can’t imagine wondering what is happening to my daughter right now.
Because these aren’t empty worries. These aren’t the worries I have – if my son will catch up on his homework after a long illness or if my older son is a bit late coming home and I’m wondering if I should call the hospital. These mothers’ worries are based on bitter reality, on devastating daily life.
My heart breaks to know that a father, a brother or an uncle road into a forested area where the terrorists are supposed to be – unarmed. So he could bring his girl back.
Today in Ann Voskamp’s blog I read, “Women aged fifteen through forty-four are more likely to be maimed or die from male violence than from cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war combined.”
These girls were just trying to get an education. Instead they were abducted, probably sold as brides to violent men who do not care about their intellect or emotions or soul.
I sit here in my little house in a corner of Ohio. Kids are playing outside, riding their bikes, laughing. The sun is shining after a long winter.
A world away, despite a blazing sun, a winter of the heart sets in for hundreds of mothers and fathers.
No, I can’t enjoy Mother’s Day this year. Not when 200+ mothers weep for daughters that may never return.
“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted; He saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all.” Psalms 34: 17, 18
Blessings, Rosanne
p.s. You can watch a video that gives a bit more info on individual girls here.
1 Comment on Why I Can’t Enjoy Mother’s Day This Year
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Beautiful, Rosanne. They are all our girls.
Praying restoration over it all, in Jesus’ name,
Selan and amen