Unimaginable evil

There are so, so, so many horrors in the world. Not new ones, necessarily. But so many. If you follow Humans of New York on facebook, perhaps you saw the story today about a man whose father gave him to a boys' "home" when he was four and for the next 13 or so years he was physically abused and raped repeatedly. That was his childhood. Torture, paid for by the state or donors. 

I don't even try to imagine. But i also don't want to forget about it. I want to vote for people who are honest and pursue justice, so there are improvements to a court system that gives nonviolent crimes life sentences but only years for child-molesting. (Should someone ever have to fear their rapist being released from prison? I don't belive so. Certainly you could hope for a change of heart and change of life for the perpetrators, but their victims will spend their own lives trying to get beyond what happened and they should not have to fear seeing their attacker on the street again.)

I also want to talk to my kids about sex. A lot. (I've already started, in fact, because my two-year-old feels the need to touch herself every time i change her diaper, so it's easy enough to teach her what parts are called and that NO ONE else should touch her there until she's a mommy [since at this point i think all grownups are mommies and daddies to her]. I want them to be unafraid to say no to anyone and especially never to be afraid to tell me or Jason if anything happened that they were even just uncomfortable with. 

But I also know that isn't enough. Yes, with loving and alert parents these situations are a lot less likely to happen. But they still could. And there i have to admit i don't have control, which is really hard. I've been learning from my own suffering, though, that there is hope in God's faithfulness. I wouldn't say to someone who suffered abuse that "God works all things for good for those who love him" - let them be led to that in their own time, perhaps - but i know that Jesus too suffered so that we might never be truly lost, never forsaken. And in him we have been made perfectly clean. God looks on us in love, not disgust, not wrath. Not ever. 

I think we can thank him, though, that the same will not be said of those who abuse and do what is vile and are not found in Christ on that last day -- whether statutes of limitation have expired or they were never caught, there is one who sees and he will not waver in judgement.