Learning Mercy

This afternoon, while Lorah and Evelyn were taking a nap, I tried to spend some time preparing for the Q&A session we have scheduled for tonight at California Bethany E.C. Church. Part of this was picking out some videos to share. There is an amazing selection of videos on Mercy Ships' YouTube channel that you should definitely subscribe to and check often!

While I was picking out a few Mercy Ships videos to share, Lily came over and wanted to play with me. I considered letting her screen videos with me. I was concerned how she might respond to seeing some of the images of deformities or that she might not have a naturally compassionate response, but I know that exposure to the broken parts of our world is the only way that we can learn to help heal them, and I want Lily to help heal those broken parts, so she has to be exposed to them; I decided that this would be a good start, after all, if she responded in the ways I was afraid of, it would be private, and we would have a chance to work on it. If it were first hand, things could be a bit... stickier. So I decided that she could watch video with me. The video we watched is below:

I was completely unprepared for her response. I'm not sure if that should be attributed to my natural pessimism, lack of faith, or both, but I am sure that Lily's gentleness, innocence, and compassion healed a bit of some of my brokenness today.

When Richmond, the little boy with glaucoma came up, I explained that he couldn't see and would be able to because that man was fixing his eye. She watched, but didn't say anything. When Aichatou, the little girl with the cleft lip and palate, came up on the screen, she asked what was on the little girls mouth. I explained that her mouth was broken, and that the people on the ship were fixing it for her. 'Oh,' she said.

As we watched the rest of the video, she began to ask where the little girl was, so I wen't back to the frame of her post-op. Lily stood up in my lap to get a closer look on my laptop screen and stared intently for several minutes (quite a long time for a three year old) and asked to see the other picture of her. I was a bit hesitant, but went ahead and showed the frame of Aichatou before she had her surgery. Lily again stood up on my lap and leaned in closely to the screen, then even more closely than before and peered at the image of the young girl for several minutes more. She then said simply, 'I like that.' I asked her, 'What do you like about it?' fearing that she may have thought having a cleft lip was cool. She responded, I like that they fixed her mouth.'

After that we finished watching the video and she talked a fair bit about how much she liked Mercy Ships and the people on the ship and the things that the ship did and how good it is that they help other people. When the video ended, she asked several questions about the little girl. Where did she go? What is she doing? and even Can I go see her? Can we go meet her. I want to see her. 

I think that Lily's gentleness and compassion healed more than a little of the brokenness and callousness of my own heart from seeing the hardness of cruelty of the world we live in. Today I thought I would teach my daughter a bit about mercy, instead she taught me about compassion.

Thank you, Lily. 

I love you,

Daddy