Troubling news

I read an article on Friday in the newspaper about Somalia and the fallout from last year's famine.  In spite of the fact that they have had rain, it is not enough and families who had gone home are now returning to refugee camps.  It is estimated that between 50,000 and 100,00 people died in the famine and 2.5 million people still need aid in order to survive.  Those numbers are staggering.  When I read this, my heart just ached:

"For Aden Mohamed, the famine's horrors are far from over.  He sobbed as he carried the lifeless, shroud-draped body of his 2 year-old son, who died Thursday morning of malnutrition.  With tears running down his cheeks, Mohamed whispered the word 'hunger' as he shuffled toward a rough grave dug on the edge of a sprawling camp close to Somalia's parliament building. 'If there is no drought and famine why are our children dying of hunger?' asked the mourning father of six as his neighbors nodded. 'Our children are dying every day.  Our stomachs burn with hunger.  Our hearts cry in silence every day.'" 

Can you even imagine?  My heart grieves for Mohamed and thousands of others just like him who are watching their children die because they don't have enough to eat.  I can't fathom what it would be like to have my stomach burn with hunger day in and day out and yet that is reality for millions of people in this world.  And it is wrong.  So very wrong.  I can only imagine how it grieves God's heart as He looks upon the millions who are suffering, while millions of others who have it within their power to help turn a blind eye.  Lord, help us.  Those of us who have all of our physical needs met are just as needy as those who are hungry and dying - simply in a different way.

I am reminded again of the paraphrase of Matthew 25 by Richard Stearnes: 

“For I was hungry, while you had all you needed. I was thirsty, but you drank bottled water. I was a stranger, and you wanted me deported. I needed clothes, but you needed more clothes. I was sick, and you pointed out the behaviors that led to my sickness. I was in prison, and you said I was getting what I deserved.”

Proverbs 21:13  Those who shut their ears to the cries of the poor will be ignored in their own time of need.

And, on that note, I am going to head over HERE to put my money where my mouth is.