Chorlton Central Church

A meditation for Haiti

I saw you on the television :
an old man, your face dirty and bloodied.
You had just been pulled out of the wreckage.
The rescuers were jubilant in exhaustion.
They had been there all night
and you were the only one who they had got out alive.
You entered my living room, my home, my life.
I want to be there, to move the rubble with my bare hands, to wipe away the blood, to comfort, to hold.
But I cannot do any of these things.
I give money.
I need to do something.
So I give money.
It's all I can do right now.
It helps me to do it.
I hope it will help you.

Jesus said "Whenever you helped the least important members of my family, you did it for me."

I saw you on the television :
an old man, your face dirty and bloodied.
They took you to a makeshift hospital.
I don't know what happened next.
I give money
and I hope it makes a difference.
It is hard to see your face
but if I saw your daughter
searching for her children
my heart might break.
I give money.
It's all I can do.

Jesus said "Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest."

I give money.
It's all I can do.
But money doesn't give the answers to the questions
……that have no answers:
Why?
Where is your God now?
Why did God let this happen?
What if that old man dies?
What if his daughter cannot find her children?
Where will God be then?
I don't know.
All I can say is
that in the jubilant shouts of the rescuers
in the cheers and applause of the on-lookers
in the skills given at bedsides and operating theatres
in the cries of the broken and the bereaved
in the frustration when aid can't get through -
in all of this, God watches and shouts and weeps with them and for them.

Jesus said "I will be with you always, to the end of time."

I saw you on the television :
an old man, your face dirty and bloodied.
Then the picture changed and I saw your people
a dozen, maybe,
together in a shelter, a makeshift church
praying and praising your God and mine.
Hope is re-kindled there.
A rough cross, lashed together out of the rubble,
speaks of love re-born.
I give money.
But if they can pray, so can I.
So tonight I will pray
and I will light a candle
for them and for you.

"The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out."

Copyright 2010 Sarah Brewerton

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new content 11 February 2009