Meerkats

I have a heavy heart today. Last week someone went missing from a poor area in Fayetteville. I knew that the search was large-scale and ongoing because I heard a police officer say that, while she normally works fraud, everyone was pulled onto this case.

As a rule, I avoid local news at all costs-every once in a while I read the paper while I sit in Chick Fil A, but that's it. So I barely paid attention to the stories about the missing person, until I heard today that they found the body of the little girl buried in a nearby forest. Later this afternoon I came across an earlier update on the case. How sad to read about the case after the tragic ending had been discovered.

It turns out that three or four weeks ago, this 8 month pregnant baby momma received custody of her 5 yr old daughter. The baby daddy who had custoday (not sure if there was an actual custody agreement--I doubt it.)apparently decided that since the baby momma had found someplace to stay and managed to hold down a job for 6 months he could trust her to care for their daughter. One to two weeks after this pretty little girl came to live with the baby momma, the lady sold her into slavery. As in human trafficking. As in a sex slave.

Once the lady reported her daughter missing, the police quickly arrested a man who turned out to be an ex-con with a felony as well as the new baby daddy for this lady. He wasn't guilty and is now suing the police department since he won't be able to find a job now that he's been accused of kidnapping and human trafficking. Someone else turned themselves in at some point, but had not revealed the location of the little girl. They found her body today. Ahhh.

If you've ever watched Meer Kat Manor, the alpha female, whatever her name is, has a billion fully grown children and keeps reproducing. Well, on one episode, one of her grown daughters makes the mistake of getting pregnant at the same time as her mother. (As if a female meerkat has much of a choice here...)So, the daughter meerkat has her baby first. The mother meerkat knows she is going into labor, so she moves the entire family/tribe/whatever meerkat groups are called far enough away that the daughter meerkat cannot find them. This is so that the rest of the tribe can protect her and her infant, find food for them, etc. There are not enough meerkats to help both meerkat moms. The grown daughter is left to either starve trying to protect her infant or to let the baby die when she leaves to find the rest of the family. It turns out that the daughter's baby meerkat died of natural causes.

How different is this baby momma from that meerkat mom? Opposable thumbs, free will, the ability to reason and think logically? From all I can tell, she can use her thumbs correctly. Maybe.

And yet, she is a daughter of God. Does He love her and weep for the logical, and possibly eternal, consequences of her actions? I think, how can He love her? I want to think, rather uncharitably, what a waste of carbon she is. Somehow, I think that in God's infinite and perfect ability to love His children, He separates the sinner from the sin.

Christ taught in Matthew 22 that all the law and the prophets (Read: commandments and teachings of the prophets) hang on the law to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves. I think that means that everything the Lord asks us to do will, if we do it, will enable and teach us to love as God loves us, as is described in 1 Corinthians 13. Surely the greatest exemplar of love, our Savior, loves unconditionally, even those people whose vile acts terrify me and break my heart.

And yet, the law of justice has to be fulfilled. I've heard so many people ask that justice be served in the case of this woman. When I first heard what she had done, I was thinking of bamboo under the fingernails, followed by water boarding, then Jack Bauer, then the death penalty. And then some.

While I think we can count on earthly consequences as well as those of a more eternal nature, I do not think I can deny her the love of probably the only Being in existence who would still love her. I cannot assign her a place in the eternities, even though I think I know what was in her heart and mind, or most likely, what was lacking there. If I would ask for mercy for myself, if I would ask for unconditional love for myself, I have to grant her those same requests. I don't know what happens to this lady when she is judged by the only One in a position to judge her and I don't know how the Savior intercedes for her and atones for her actions. Is true repentance, not a jail or death-bed conversion, from this kind of crime possible? I don't have an answer to that question.

What I do know is that the beautiful little girl has been welcomed home by her loving Father in heaven, has met and felt the love of her Savior, who showed us how He loved little children. To calm myself down, I remember that we reap what we sow, as will this lady. Then I am free to focus instead on how grateful I am to know that our Father's plan provides a means to overcome such sadness. Jesus suffered so that this little girl need not suffer anymore.