Assist News Service (ANS) once
described a young Palestinian female victim finding herself alone in the family
home in Gaza, bleeding and nearing coma.
An Israeli tank shell had just exploded nearby. It killed her father while
she, Amira al-Girim, watched in horror.
As far as Amira knew, her
brother and sister had also died in the air strike while running for help. Amira’s
family, believing her dead, scooped up the scraps of remaining flesh and buried
the box. By the time surviving family members caught up with this fifteen-year-old,
she had quietly occupied a hospital bed with an injured leg in traction.
Tears washed her face as
she described the Israeli tank shell that killed her father and his friend. In
a weak voice she sobbed, "I looked outside and I found my father's car
crushed, and his legs cut off. The floor was covered with blood from my
leg."
She barely knew her name.
Only faintly, she remembered getting a glass of water. “I wanted to fill it
with water from the tap, but it fell down on the floor, and then there was
blood all over the glass so I couldn't use it. I waited a bit and then I drank
directly from the tap."
Amira admitted wanting to
leave, but when she found her father lying across the door, she admitted,
"I didn't want to step on him in case I hurt him." She slept in the
streets for the next two days, then finally made her way to another house. She
struggled an estimated 500 meters with her bleeding and badly broken leg,
searching for shelter, and all the while the battle continued to rage nearby.
By the time the reporters
found her, the Doctors already agreed she had but hours to live. When family
members finally discovered Amira had survived, their reuniting became very
emotional indeed.
Amira is merely an example,
real though she be, of the collateral damages in one hostile pocket of our
global community. People like Amira immediately find themselves damaged goods,
even when they play only minor roles in the regional conflicts that fail to catch
major attention from the world. Victims like Amira, experience life-changing
trauma that requires extensive treatment. Should she receive all the care she
needs, no one knows if she will ever be the same again? Does she have any idea
that the God of Heaven has a great love for her?
Collateral damages never
fail to result from our inhumane violence, our misguided politics, and our angry
words. Some- how; they become secondary to our seemingly more important
political issues of our Nation-states, although we are theoretically more
humane in this modern era. Violence remains one of the rare commodities we humans
seem to enjoy sharing mutually in common.
It may be only a child
gunned down outside a Southside Chicago home. Or, it may merely be the hapless victim
of a well-meaning community unwilling or unable to resolve its conflicts. In
one way or another, we all appear quite skilled in keeping them outside the
scope of our personal and public attention.
Politicians practice petty
politics and wage turf wars—all to grasp a clenched fist full of political
power. Citizens invest their lives and
their fortunes building self-protective barriers they rationalize as Christian principles,
party politics, or protective public policies. Almost to a person, we minimize our
“collateral damages” while we ignore that Divine Declaration that announces “God
so loved the world…” (John 3;16).
No one ever visualized
human beings as fully in the image of God (Genesis 1:26; 9:26) as specifically and
as fully as Jesus did. He taught the multitudes on the side of the mountain to “love”
their enemies and “pray” for their persecutors (Matthew 5:44).
Violence never fails to destroy
more than it achieves. War never fails to produce more broken relationships
than it can heal. Wrong methods never fail to fall short of the needed right
objective.
Only when we respect each
other as individuals, and create relationships that consider the political
persuasions and eco-nomic securities of the common good; only then will our military superiorities become
unnecessary. We can experience “Community”
only when we will willingly risk extending our open palms to those who approach
us with their clenched fists.
We will achieve peaceful
neighborhoods and enjoy the fruits of global peace ONLY when we purposefully
pursue peaceful, non-violent relationships. Violence and war remain our current
socially acceptable means for achieving diplomatic and political objectives,
but the COLLATERAL DAMAGES we continue to pay are far too high a price for such small gains.
This is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com suggesting …
if we wish be called children
of God, we must follow the Spirit of God and intentionally activate as the peacemakers
Jesus described (Matthew 5:9 et al) throughout his going-about with his
disciples.
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