It was Labor Day and the store was more crowded than usual. I was in a hurry to pick up a few more items for the teenage boys who are constantly hungry at my house. My mind was on autopilot as I grabbed a cart and passed through the automatic door glancing at the ‘missing’ poster that had been there for too long. I had looked at it at least twenty times, but this time I fought a wave of nausea as I thought about how long it’s been since those two beautiful little girls were taken.
July 13th was the last day anyone saw Lyric Cook Morrissey and Elizabeth Collins. They were just innocent little girls who were riding bicycles in the neighborhood on a hot summer day.
As I pushed my cart through the produce section I wondered how in the world their parents were supposed to live normal lives not knowing what happened to their children. While they were living a parent’s worst nightmare, most of us were celebrating the end of summer. That didn’t sit well with me at all.
An entire community, not too far from where I live, is still searching for clues–anything to give them hope. It’s been too long. Lately my prayers have become more like an interrogation:
“What are you doing to help these people? How much longer do they have to wait? Have we forgotten them already?”
My own question convicted me. I hadn’t forgotten, but I was tired of the poster messing with my happy place anytime I went to the grocery store.
We live in a world where we’re bombarded by information. It’s easy to skim over the important stuff. Unless something is in our faces every single day, we quickly move on…especially where tragedy is concerned. It’s too easy to turn bad or uncomfortable news off or switch the channel. Believe me, I do it all the time. I’d rather watch or read stories that have happy endings. I don’t like the ones that leave me hanging.
There’s so much more at stake here than my personal media tastes. Two little girls have been taken. This story doesn’t have a happy ending yet. Right now it would appear that evil still has the upper hand.
Not if I can help it.
Today I’m using this space to put this story in your face again. Please join me in praying for these beautiful girls and their families that they will be rescued and that justice will be served. Use your influence to share this story and remind people that these little girls are waiting to be rescued. We cannot forget or choose to ignore them.
I cannot imagine what these families are going through…I don’t even want to try. If these were my children, I wouldn’t want anyone to forget. I found an article featuring some advice from kidnap survivor Elizabeth Smart here that I thought was incredibly generous. Only God can take someone who by every definition should be living the rest of their life in a mental hospital and turn her story into one of hope and courage to help families dealing with the horror of abduction. Only God.
…I’m the one who’s on your side, defending your cause, rescuing your children. And your enemies, crazed and desperate, will turn on themselves, killing each other in a frenzy of self-destruction. Then everyone will know that I, God, have saved you–I, the Mighty One of Jacob.–Isaiah 49:25-26 The Message
Thank you for praying.
