four:th of a nation

They say that one in four South Africans has AIDS.

And I know it's true. I see it all around me: In the funeral tents that dot the horizon, in the sunken cheeks of a woman my age, in the lifelessness of the eighteen-month-old boy in my lap...

He says that there is hope.

And I know it's true. I see it all around me: In the faces that light up when they hear---for the first time---that there's a God who loves them, in the signed commitments to save sex for marriage, in the smile that spreads across the face of the lifeless toddler in my lap...

Sometimes it's easier to see the reality of what they say. But if I look closely, I can't miss the reality of what He says.

Lord, give me eyes to see...