I Don't Want To Forget

My eyes riveted on the little child in this picture. The text with the photo explains that it was a Pulitzer prize winning photo, taken by Kevin Carter, in the 1994 Sudan famine. The famine stricken child is crawling towards a United Nations camp located a kilometer away. The vulture is waiting for the child to die, so it can eat the child. No one knows what happened to the child.

An overwhelming sadness gripped me. How does this happen in a civilized world? I was staring at the little boy in this picture. Please look at this photo. Let it soak in. This picture shocked the world when it was released.

Tragically, the photographer, Kevin Carter, overcome by depression, committed suicide three months later. His journal was later found. In it, he wrote: "Dear God, I promise I will never waste my food no matter how bad it can taste and how full I may be. I pray that He will protect this little boy, guide and deliver him away from his misery. I pray that we will be more sensitive towards the world around us and not be blinded by our own selfish nature and interests. I hope this picture will always serve as a reminder to us that how fortunate we are and that we must never ever take things for granted. . . ."

A couple days later I looked at it again. I forwarded it to our daughters’ families. One wrote back: “That is incredible! It nearly took my breath away.” It is beyond any question one of the saddest most moving photographs I have ever seen. That night as I got into bed, the picture of that boy haunted me. I lay on my pillow thinking: What can I do? How can I make a difference?
I thought of Bob Pierce’s famous prayer as he looked at a similar scene: “Oh God, break my heart with the things that break your heart.” Yes, God. I want to work on your agenda.

A woman in a former church I served as pastor sent us the photo. My wife, Mary, was so moved by the photo too. I said to her as we talked about the photo, “Don’t delete that. I don’t want to forget it.”

I don’t know the full answer to the question “What can I do?” But I must wrestle with it. Jesus wants me to wrestle with. It is the terrible imbalance of wealth in our world. The haves and the have-nots grow wider apart. It is our comfort in America. Well stocked grocery store shelves numb us to pictures like this. Our too often exclamation that “I ate too much” is part of a culture that doesn’t remember children like this one.

I know where the answers begin. It starts with a heart broken by the things that break God’s heart. It is motivated by Jesus’ words: “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” I feel a tinge of hope as I think of Rick Warren’s bold, new vision. If churches around the world will work together, we can wipe out poverty and hunger. I think that’s true.

Don’t delete that from your mind. I don’t want you to forget either.