Surprised by Amazon

As I was laying in bed tonight I was navigating my way to Amazon.com on my laptop to update my Wish List. When I pulled up Amazon's homepage my eye was attracted to the cover of a book that Amazon was kind enough to suggest I might be interested in. It wasn't so much the subject of the book that interested me as much as it was the photo on the cover. It was a photo I hadn't seen for a few years, but I used to have up on my desk when I was working administration for RE/MAX. I placed it on my desk back then because I found it mesmerizing:


The photo was taken by Michael Yon, an ex-special ops soldier who is now a free-lancing photo journalist. It was taken in May 2005 in Mosul, Iraq, of an American soldier holding an Iraqi child. This soldier was on patrol in Mosul in his Stryker vehicle when he came up to a group of 20 or so children who had come out to wave at the American soldiers. Off to the side a suicide bomber drove his car, loaded with explosives, into the Stryker vehicle. This little girl, named Farah, was injured in the explosion. Major Bieger ran over to her, cradled her and spoke gently to her as he hugged her. He took a group of soldiers with him as he rushed her to the Military hospital so she could receive the care of our Military Surgeons instead of sending her to an Iraqi hospital. Sadly Farah never made it to the hospital and died in his arms. You can read about the encounter on Yon's blog here.

This particular photo had always been able to reduce me to tears, even four years ago, but it seemed especially poignant now that I myself have a daughter. As I lie there in bed tonight
just staring at this picture, a whole slew of emotions ran over me. I know that for some of us this picture represents all that is wrong with the war in Iraq. You'll say that Farah would be alive today if only we hadn't been running patrols through Mosul to begin with. Perhaps you are right. To others it will represent the very reason why we are in Iraq, fighting those who are so intent on killing other that they would be willing to sacrifice their own children in the process.

As I stared at this picture tonight I cried for a lot of reasons. As a Dad of a young girl I of course immediately imagine the parent's grief and the little girl's horror. But I also imagine the blessing in knowing that this soldier was there to comfort her, and she didn't die alone. My heart was saddened as I mourned for humanity, as we are capable of inflicting pain on each other on an unimaginable scale. But I am thankful for God's grace, without which there really is no hope for a better tomorrow for mankind. And I was moved by the humbling reality that my perspective can be so horribly flawed, as I was online to update a list of things I want, and yet all over the world there is so much pain and sadness experienced by so many.

I've written a lot on this blog about perspective and how it is so difficult to maintain a good perspective. As an American it can be particularly difficult, because we have so many distractions pulling for our attention. Indeed, even the Hebrews, God's chosen people and witness to a great many of His miracles, had to be constantly reminded by God himself to 'remember' all that He had done for them. The sad reality of what you could call the 'Human Condition' is that for us, it really isn't possible to maintain proper perspective on all issues at all times. We just cannot live our daily lives with the type of focus that would require. But our inability to do that doesn't change the reality that without the proper perspective we cannot possibly make informed decisions. In reality we are constantly making poor decisions based on a flawed perspective.

The photo also made me think of the incredible burden our leaders carry, and the in-enviable amount of responsibility they have. It is another reminder for us to pray that God graces them with the wisdom they so desperately need to make wise policy decisions. Because no matter how good our Military Intelligence is, how thoroughly we plan our political and military engagements, or how advanced our weaponry is, we will never possess the wisdom, knowledge or perspective needed to accurately weigh the pros and cons of whether to engage the enemy or not to. Only God possesses that type of thorough knowledge. Which only further adds to the tragedy of this image, the knowledge that no matter how long we debate the pros and cons of the Iraq War the reality is we'll never know if it was a necessary action or not. No matter how strongly someone will push their position one way or another, we will never really know. Only the Lord can know that. But what we do know is that another human being did drive his car into that armored vehicle resulting in the death of a little Iraqi girl, and there was nothing we could do to stop it or foresee it. And for perhaps the first time we identify with the writer of Ecclesiastes when he exclaims that it seems that no matter what man does, whether we perceive it to be wise or folly, always seems to end the same, and we cannot stop this maddening cycle of feeling helpless.

In this one photo we see both the evil mankind can perpetrate and the tender aspect of this soldier's heart, who in the middle of a war zone risked his life to comfort a dying child. Those two truths are in constant conflict with each other, and this photo is a member of that special class of photos that are able to capture both the miserable condition mankind finds itself in and the depth of love these hearts God gave to us are capable of. The dichotomy of this photo will, I'm sure, always make me cry.