She looks so much like us. Except she is not trying to decide where the family is going out to eat tonight or what they are going to watch on their streaming TV service.
Instead, she shelters in a basement, overcrowded, with no bathrooms, and enough food for only one day. It is an impossible situation for her to explain to her three children, old enough to know something is very wrong.
It’s hard for her to keep from crying as she looks at them. Finally, she breaks down when she reflects on saying goodbye to her husband two days ago. The odds that she will see him again, are slim. He like all the other males have taken up arms to fight for his country and his family.
Yes. It is a true story.
Maybe this how it felt when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland in 1939. The isolationists prevailed until directly attacked themselves. As the world stood by, yet another attempt at assembling a vast empire through sheer force and brutality almost succeeded.
It seems surreal. The largest amassing of a military and weaponry since World War II focused on a non-threatening neighbor nation happening as the world watches.
The Ukraine is rich in natural resources. It used to be a part of the Soviet Union. Perhaps Putin wants the gradual reunification of the Soviet Union to be his legacy.
One man can be a huge force, if he is in leadership, is ruthless, controls the narrative, and has no one to stop him internally or externally.
How do you respond to an international bully? How do you take a stand against him without provoking a wider, more deadly conflict? How do you help people whose country is being overrun? What is the right level of force? How do you respond with both wisdom and compassion?
No matter the era of history or the calendar year, there are always hot spots and ruthless dictators in the world. Multiple countries have nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. We forget how fragile freedom and life itself are.
We pray for the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have left everything behind as they flee the war zone. We pray for world leaders to make wise decisions.
Remember that mom and her children pleading to the world on that cell phone video.
