This photo moves me. It was taken March 10, 2009 in Sri Lanka. A religious celebration is taking place. In the foreground you can see a man with a tambourine like drum about to strike his instrument one last time. An older, gray haired man is walking in the middle of the procession and flames are licking at his ankles though his face has not had time to react to what is happening behind him. Others faces are still unaffected by the impending doom which has occurred a nano second before. Fourteen people died in the blast perpetrated by a suicide bomber/murderer who felt his beliefs and feelings trumped other people's right to live, let alone live in peace. There is a shirt in the air in the upper left hand corner. I wonder if it is the shirt blown off of the killer.
We need to pray daily for people who live with such fear, whose family members die in such ways, who have to suffer as survivors for the rest of their lives. The survivors suffer, many times, from physical injuries that are permanent. Certainly they all suffer extreme trauma emotionally for the rest of their lives. They are not Americans, they may not be highly educated, they are not rich, and maybe their life's expectancy is shorter in Sri Lanka and dreams less grandiose. Yet, they are all our Lord's children made in His image. And, yes, they suffer just as we would and perhaps even more. Do we allow ourselves to notice? I hope we pay attention.
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