I have a lovely lady who enters my home just as my daughter goes down for her morning nap. Can someone sing in a high voice "Sanity!" (this means I am a mommy delighted with my napping toddler) This lovely lady enters just as preschool (the part we actually call school) ends or wraps up in tears because it is over (great problem to have I think; crying because we can't do MORE school). She enters when I least want her but she fits into life with a consistency that is healthy for my language acquisition as a mommy.
Yesterday we talked about rape, riots, and curfews imposed by our government. Today as our class finished and we were sipping overly sweet chai I asked why she wasn't married. She talked about education and how important it is to her family. I asked when she finished her degree. There was a long pause then quietly she said (in Hindi) "2005." That was a ion ago. I leaned back. I could see the shame on her face. I could hear the hurt. If I did not push now I would let that shame stay swirling around us unnamed and unfaced. So I prayed in my heart, sipped some more chai and asked again, "So why so long?"
Glancing around her to see that no one could hear she confessed that not one but two families had entered the process with her family to engage her in marriage but when they came to meet her and see her she was considered too dark. My heart broke with the sadness etched on her face. The rejection and pain of rejection cloaked her slowly darkening her demeanor even as she spoke. I shook my head in the cultural way implying sorrow and a great wrong. We say silent awhile. Tears gathered. Then I said, "God does not like this. He made you. He is a good Creator. This is a sinful thing that has happened to you."
I asked her about the story of creation. What did God say about people? Very good. We talked about His love about how this was not a good thing that they had said. How God would disagree with them. We talked about hurt, healing and a Father's love. She is not a sister yet but there was a depth of conversation we had not had for a long time, an opening of hearts that hurt yet also felt healing. I asked to close our time in prayer and she agreed. As broken as her soul my words fell, I felt, but again there was a sense of peace on her face that had not been there before. He is moving.
Yesterday we talked about rape, riots, and curfews imposed by our government. Today as our class finished and we were sipping overly sweet chai I asked why she wasn't married. She talked about education and how important it is to her family. I asked when she finished her degree. There was a long pause then quietly she said (in Hindi) "2005." That was a ion ago. I leaned back. I could see the shame on her face. I could hear the hurt. If I did not push now I would let that shame stay swirling around us unnamed and unfaced. So I prayed in my heart, sipped some more chai and asked again, "So why so long?"
Glancing around her to see that no one could hear she confessed that not one but two families had entered the process with her family to engage her in marriage but when they came to meet her and see her she was considered too dark. My heart broke with the sadness etched on her face. The rejection and pain of rejection cloaked her slowly darkening her demeanor even as she spoke. I shook my head in the cultural way implying sorrow and a great wrong. We say silent awhile. Tears gathered. Then I said, "God does not like this. He made you. He is a good Creator. This is a sinful thing that has happened to you."
I asked her about the story of creation. What did God say about people? Very good. We talked about His love about how this was not a good thing that they had said. How God would disagree with them. We talked about hurt, healing and a Father's love. She is not a sister yet but there was a depth of conversation we had not had for a long time, an opening of hearts that hurt yet also felt healing. I asked to close our time in prayer and she agreed. As broken as her soul my words fell, I felt, but again there was a sense of peace on her face that had not been there before. He is moving.
This is beautiful! And all in Hindi! Go girl! Go God!
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