Jan 26, 2012

a sad tale from Ethiopia

Our agency director posted this, and I remember having read several years ago, but I'd totally forgotten that it happened in Ethiopia.  You see, Ethiopia was just a nice country in Africa before and now it's all tangled up in my heart.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8305836/ns/world_news-africa/t/ethiopian-girl-reportedly-guarded-lions/

The story is astonishing, because these ferocious animals acted as a young girl's protectors--the lions behaved with more compassion than the men, who kidnapped and beat her. 

And even more astonishing is the fact that the last line reports, non-chalantly even, that "kidnapping young girls has long been part of the marriage custom in Ethiopia. The United Nations estimates that more than 70 percent of marriages in Ethiopia are by abduction, practiced in rural areas where most of the country’s 71 million people live." 

When I hear these kind of things, I can't help but think, "That could have been my precious child."  And then, an even worse thought (that is true): "That IS someone's precious child."  I thank God for the safety and protection we are privileged to here, even as I wonder why things are as they are there.

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