Repulsive

In 1993 Kevin Carter captured this photo of a starving Sudanese girl crawling toward a UN Food Shelter about one kilometer away.  The photo won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 which is the same year the photographer took his life.  Our hearts are stirred as we realize this little girls plight and understand that she probably died before reaching the shelter. Our hearts become enraged as we learn the photographer did nothing to help this little girl escape the vultures beak.  We find it repulsive that someone could look upon such need and walk away having done nothing.  Repulsive that he would not take the time to scoop this little girl up in his arms and carry her to the place where she could receive care and sustenance.  What would it have cost him to save her?  Repulsive.  Repulsive because here was a little girl who needed what he could give her.  Here was a little girl who without someone coming to her aid had no hope.

There is something about this story that is more gut wrenching than a vulture awaiting his next meal.  Something more nauseating than a man who could walk away from a girl in such need.  Something that should cause all of us to fall on our faces and plead with our God for this to never happen again.  The saddest part of this picture is knowing that this little girl probably died having never heard the name of Jesus and having never had the opportunity to place her ever complete faith in His provision for her ultimate need.  Salvation.  Even sadder is the knowledge that right now over 4.5 billion people in this world are spiritually starving.  They are being watched over by the vulture of death who is just waiting for his time to feast upon their lost souls. 

It is repulsive to our heavenly Father that we can sit in our comforts while countless children, wives, husbands, grand mothers, and friends who He created in His image just like you and me, crawl in a wasteland groping for the only food that satisfies, the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ.  It is repulsive to Him because He does not desire that any perish, but that all have an opportunity to believe in Him.  It is repulsive to Him because He has given us so many resources and tools for reaching the lost around us and around the world, but we are to consumed with our own that we do not stop.  We do not stop when we see the little girls and boys playing in the street or on the playground.  We do not go to our neighbors, friends, or family. 

It is repulsive that we will weep over this little girl and her physical needs, but when we turn to consider her spiritual needs the tears stop.  We say that the photographer is guilty and should be ashamed of himself for not doing all he could to help.  But we give a pathetic list of excuses for why we cannot help the masses who need something far more important than food.  We give reasons that sound very pius and spiritual, but in reality we are . . . repulsive.  Matthew 25 tells us “What you have done to the least of these you have done unto me.” 

These people are not starving nor is a vulture lurking, but they are just as desperate for nourishment as the little girl above.  Without Christ these precious people are destined to spend eternity separated from the only one who truly loves and cares for them.   Without Christ they will never see the glory of Heaven because their sin is repulsive to a Holy God.  Their sin is just as repulsive as was my sin and your sin before Christ covered it with His blood.  It is just as repulsive as yours and mine would have been had someone not loved us and their Lord enough to give us the nourishment that will truly last forever.  These faces and our faces were created for the same purpose, that we would all one day look to our Creator and worship Him as our Lord and our God.  One day God will look on my face and be pleased because of Christ.  One day He will look on these faces and be repulsed unless someone will do what the first photographer did not, and give them the greatest help they could ever receive, the message of the gospel.  

Will we find their freedom from sin and salvation in Christ as more valuable than anything this world can offer?  We will find sin as repulsive as our Lord and seek to rid our lives of its stain?  Will we find these people as valuable as does our Lord and be willing to give whatever it takes to see them fall before Him in surrender?  Are we willing to be seen as repulsive by our world for the sake of those who have no chance of hearing? 

Right now over 1.5 billion in South Asia have never even heard the name of Jesus.  Right now 1.5 billion have zero access and will never hear unless someone goes to them.  Right now you and I must make a decision.  To see a starving girl and only take a photo is repulsive.  To read an article, know the Truth, and not give it to those in need. . . Repulsive.

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