This one is an intentional picking of my pen to write because there are questions about what might be and what not.
Alone? waiting maybe…
In faith? almost fainting maybe…
This one is out of necessity for we have the same blood flowing through our vein.
A mother is seen walking hand in hand with her child, about to cross a busy Lagos road.
She watches, left, right and runs across in haste but something happens.
Just as she dashed across, her child is taken from her grip by a stranger.
This mother gets to the other side safe and looks back surprised, questioning how this child slipped from her grip.
She stands for a while beckoning to this child to: run, cross, to save herself.
This she does for a while and starts to walk away without looking back.
She moved on,
easily,
just like that.
Okay, truth is, she remembers this child once in a while, on the occasion when she is reminded by neighbors. When their curious questions about how long it had been since they saw this girl, and how the rain reminded them of the near visible dimple on her cheek.
She remembers in these moments.
She remembers when the news headline display a picture of this child with a watermark “missing” just beneath her name and she feels some pain in her chest but questions what she really could have done differently to stop things from going the way they did.
Why has this mother moved on like the incident never happened,
Like there’s really nothing she can do,
Like whatever would be would be anyway and she has no part to play?
Why have we moved on as a church without Leah Sharibu?
Well, we are this mother and our child has been taken.
Incase you ask beneath your breath “what really can I do to help someone captured and kept in an unknown place?
This is what we can do:
Pray!
Like you would if your sister suddenly went missing
Pray;
Like the church did when Peter was held in prison
Pray;
That her faith would not fail
Pray;
That God would make a way of escape;
For a real life miracle to happen;
That she becomes a living testimony of God’s wonder
That she remains unbroken for the Lord.
This is what we can do as that mother whose child was snatched from her grip
For we have the same blood of Christ flowing through our vein.
Plus this mother knows not that this stranger probably plans to come for another, and another and another until she rises up to silence him.
Pray for Leah and every other captive.
Ps: It would make a huge difference if we all see it as a personal responsibility to mention her case to God daily, for it to be a part of our big church services…yes, this is that important. The church did not go to sleep when Peter was put in prison, we must not go to sleep now.
Have a beautiful week ahead and please remember to pray for Leah.
