Jesus said in Matthew 18:1-6, that if anyone leads a child astray, it would be better for them to have a heavy stone tied to their neck and to be drowned in the sea.
Wow, Jesus, that’s pretty harsh.
Or is it?
You see, Jesus was always welcoming kids to hang out with him and teaching the disciples to be like them.
This week on Bangla Road those verses became real to me.
As my team and I were getting ready to leave after a night of ministry, a little girl about 7 years old, named Nina, came up to us with an armful of flower lays. She was so beautiful and so sweet. She looked at us with big eyes and begged us to buy some. We told her we couldn’t buy any and her face dropped (This is something our host missionaries told us specifically that we couldn’t do because it makes the children trapped on that street). We then asked her why she was out so late (It was about 11:30pm). She then said she had to sell all of her flowers before she could stop for the night. After each person that she talked to she would call someone on her phone–Whether it was her parents or her boss, I don’t know.
A righteous anger burned up inside me. Maybe it was because there aren’t many children on Bangla road (nor should there be), maybe it was because this girl reminded me of one of my nieces, maybe because I love children and I thought of the boy that I sponsor and what his life would be like without Compassion International intervening in his life.
I had to walk away from the group.
I thought of the movie, Slumdog Millionaire, and the children who were picked up off the streets, mutilated, and forced to beg for their oppressors.
I tried to imagine what my life would have been like if I were forced to live the life Nina is forced to live.
I prayed for God’s justice in Nina’s life.
And I pray that I would be an instrument for justice and not oppression in this world.
