Dual realities

 

We’re getting really close to being able to buy tickets and head over!!!  As our time here is quickly coming to a close, we’ve been spending time with friends and family.  The girls and I went on a trip with my parents to see my brother and sister-in-law recently and I’m thankful we got to see them and other friends and family along the way.   On our way back, we were planning on stopping at a park outside to break up the trip.  When the weather forecasted storms and our windshield wipers confirmed them, we decided to change our plans.  The girls still needed a break from the car and we thought the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham might be the place to go.  It brought me both hope and heartbreak.  

 

This monument was for the children's march after which thousands of children were thrown in jail.

I watched more of my girls’ innocence chipped away as we went through the exhibits.  We’ve talked about the civil rights movement before and they went to the MLK memorial in Atlanta, but I could see they saw things with new eyes as they looked at images and saw a bombed-out bus.  I hated to see this innocence lost, and yet I know I can’t shield them from the pain in this world forever.  Since they’re about to see more harsh realities in the present, this was a lesson needing to be learned.  

We often live in a world of dual realities.  Those in our own lives and then the world outside of us.  We sometimes have influence over this outside world, and we sometimes choose to shut it out, looking just at what is directly in front of us.  

As I explained to one of the girls why I wanted her seeing this sad reality of the past, I talked about the parable of the good Samaritan.  I don’t want my girls to be the priest or Levite who see those hurting and walk on by, I want them to have eyes that see the needs around them, the realities outside of their own lives.  But just seeing isn’t enough either.  They must stop and do something to help those who are hurting, to ease their pain.  

One of the exhibits had an audio dialogue ‘eavesdropping’ between a conversation between spouses.  The wife wanted to join in the protests and marches, the husband feared it would cost them his job and possibly home.  I explained to the girls as we listened that there were some people during that time who saw what was happening and had to make a choice.  Would they be like the priest and Levite walking by, or would they stop, even though it may cost them, because they knew others were hurting and needed their help?  

It can be easy looking back and seeing the sins of the past, but much more difficult as we’re living in the moment of our own personal realities.  I don’t know what future generations will say as they look back at the present time, but I hope the ones I’m molding will grow into women that love others as Jesus did.   I pray they will look beyond themselves as they try to help those who are hurting and live out their beliefs in word and deed. 

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