“She Looks Sad.”

This is my daughter. She is happy, spunky, and fashionable. She loves her dad and wants to be just like her mom. She is a leader, great helper, and encourager. She likes to dance and read. She enjoys time with her friends and thinks everyone in the world loves her. I have to remind her sometimes that the world does not revolve around her. We talk about America and education, our blessings and the poor. She is compassionate and generous. She is beginning to understand responsibility. When I think about my daughter, I see a young girl who is confident, healthy, strong, smart, and with endless possibilities. Then often become heartbroken for all the children in the world, especially the girls, who do not share her reality and therefore, have no part in the promising future that likely awaits her.

As a result of this heartbreak, my husband and I prayerfully decided to sponsor another girl this year. We sponsored our first child through Compassion International a couple years ago. After reading Richard Stearns book, The Hole in our Gospel, this summer, we decided to sponsor again, this time through World Vision.

Our first sponsored child is from Indonesia. We wanted our daughter to know where that is, so we recently hung a world map in her room. We hope it helps with her developing geography skills (not my strong suit) and we point to the different places as we read books together from different parts of the world. We were talking about the continents lately, and I was telling her a little about Africa and its surrounding regions.

As I searched the World Vision website, I selected a “girl” from Zimbabwe. My husband asked that I look for a girl who is the same age as our daughter so eventually they can write each other and become pen pals. When the girl popped on my monitor, I paused.

When we received her photos a couple weeks later in the mail, I eagerly showed them to my daughter. My daughter looked at the picture, looked up at me and said, “She looks sad.” I said, “I know, baby that means we will keep praying for her and doing what we can to make her happy.”

The reality is: our new sponsored daughter does not have the glimmer in her eyes that my daughter has. Looking at her video, you see no fire in her belly or no joy in her stride. She has no hair, and if observed from behind can be easily mistaken for a boy. At first glance, I paused in wonder of how many Americans make not adopting a child like her simply because of our poor distortions of beauty.

But what is true beauty? “Beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news (Rom. 10:15),” so I thank God for World Vision, Compassion International, other organizations like them and those who support. This child is beautiful in my sight. I pray we will fully embrace her and those like her.

Will you prayerfully consider how God is calling you to embrace the children, both locally and globally, of the world to share the good news of Jesus?

“Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them…Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these’ (Matt. 19:13a, 14).”

© Natasha Sistrunk Robinson 2012