Suffer the little children...

For you created my inmost being;

    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

    your works are wonderful,

    I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you

    when I was made in the secret place,

    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Psalm 139: 13-15 (NIV)

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Matthew 19:14 (NIV)

On Monday I officiated at what I hope is my first and last funeral.  Little Ashley Faith had lain in the morgue for a week while the powers that be decided what should be done with her body.    Since she had been found in a dumpster in a town about an hour away we tried to see if that town would take responsibility for her burial. They would not.  The town nearest here agreed to bury her in their potters field for a price.  

After her bill at the hospital was cleared by a benevolence fund we piled into a Tenwek truck and were off to Bomet.  There were five of us initially; two social workers and a friend of theirs, the driver and me.  After several stops to pick up more papers, an additional passenger with the gate to the cemetery, and to pay the burial fee of 1800 shillings or approximately $18.00, we were on our way to the cemetery.  It was quite a route over rocky “roads",  past the new Bomet sewage plant, and the new stadium (who knew they had a "football “team), until we finally reached the cemetery.  

It was a beautiful open field that overlooked a stream.  We walked for quite awhile carrying Faith in the little cardboard box which was her casket.  After descending a very steep hill we came to the little open grave where we were to lay her.  For some reason it fell to me to officiate.  I prayed for clarity and something meaningful to say.   The words of Psalm 139 came loud and clear and I read them with a meaning I had not experienced before and will never forget. "For it was you who formed my inward parts; you formed me together in my mother's  womb."  When I was being made  in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes beheld my unformed substance ......". We prayed and then respectfully  buried her little body.  Her soul  had long been with her maker who blessed little children.

It was time to leave and take the scenic route back to the hospital.

Miriam