The Storm

When two clouds collide in the sky and thunder rolls, we call it a storm. When cold air and warm air crash into each other, we call it a hurricane or tornado.  So what should I call it when two “worlds” collide?

This is the storm that came Tuesday night in Nairobi.

In my “world” children don’t go hungry, bare feet are covered, dirty hands are washed, and torn clothes are mended. In my safe world, lost children are looked for and then held tightly in arms of love.

As we rolled through the dark streets of Nairobi last night, headed to our resting place for the next 5 nights, two worlds collided in front of me -----I felt broken by the storm.

If there were no evil, we would never need to reach for the goodness of His Robe.

There is evil ------ and so we reach and take hold.

We rode through the dusty streets in the black night, moving slowly; so many holes and ruts in the road. There are caves of deep “darkness” in the nighttime streets of Nairobi. Our friend slowed his car to a creeping roll and said, “I always drive slowly through here, it is where he sometimes can be found.” We asked who he spoke of, and the storm hit hard.

“Isaac, our Isaac.”

Clever, grinning, twinkly eyed Isaac no longer lays his head on a soft pillow in a safe bed when darkness comes. He’s back on the streets, in a world fully equipped to abuse and devour him.

I wanted to jump from the car and scream! “This is so WRONG!”

But no sailor has ever screamed at the raging sea and stopped the harm those relentless winds would bring.

None but One, our Savior. The One who wears those robes I’ve decided fully to cling to. He can stop the storm, He can hold and heal what is hurled about in the winds. I couldn’t scream at the awfulness of our Isaac being back in the mouth of evil --- after all, he had actually chosen to return to the streets. 

Years ago, long before we knew him, the hurts that had been inflicted on this child had been soothed in the streets by the numbing effects of the glue he sniffed and the brew he drank --- it was his escape when storms hit. No one had been there to feed him when he was hungry or cover his tiny bare feet. No one had washed his sweet chubby hands when they were dirty or mended the clothes he wore. And so he had run to the streets of Nairobi, to escape the beatings and abuses that rained down on his little five year old body. Street children will tell you, they would rather gamble at being beaten on the street (holding on to the hope that they can run and escape) rather than remain in an abusive place and endure the unavoidable abuse.

Oh God ----- could you please come back today.

It’s all so wrong here!

I come from a “world” where children’s hands are held when they cross the street and mouths are wiped clean after they’ve eaten their fill.

But this, this right in front of my eyes, this “world” where hands are used to harm them and no mouths need to be wiped because no food has crossed their tiny lips ---- this “world” is just too wrong, too broken, too awful, too evil.

So could you please come today Lord --- because when you come, their pain will end. Oh but God wait, do they know you? How very weak I am – how very thankful I am that You are GOD.

I’ve learned that “if” they know of You, God, they’ve decided they don’t trust you. They don’t trust anyone or anything.

Oh God… I want to rail at the wrongness of their storm.

But then I pause and I wonder ---- how you must feel over it.

After all ----- the Garden of Eden was your plan --- not this.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  Matthew 5:4

Darkness comes upon them in the daytime; at noon they grope as in the night. Job 5:14

Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like morning.  Job 11:17

He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings utter darkness into the light.  Job 12:22

Turn night into day; in the face of the darkness light is near.  Job 17:12

Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.  Job 23:17

You, LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.  Psalm 18:28

He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains.  Psalm 107:14

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.  Isaiah 9:2

Photos taken by Maggie in 2007 and 2009


©2012 Donna Taylor/Reaching for the Robe