Life is...

...fragile.

I thought I understood this, however, I'm coming to a deeper understanding every.single.day.

Life is fragile.

This morning I took four amazing people, from England, to Themba Hospital. Luke, Emily, Claire, Lucy and I started out of our drive way with light hearts, ready to read to the children and to make them smile. We arrived at the hospital and headed up the stairs to the Children's ward. Usually when we arrive on the ward there are children in the hall ready to be hugged, kissed, loved, and, hopefully, get some sweets. Today, that was not the case.

Life is fragile.

Today there were thirty-one children on the ward and less than half of them had a parent with them. There were at least eight sweet babies with one of their legs tied to the foot of the bed because they had leg injuries. Three sweet young boys in a room marked "infectious", so they couldn't leave their room. One very scared two year was clinging to his mothers body, she was twenty and trying to get answers about his left lung which has not developed properly and so he struggles to breathe. "How are you", I asked. "Scared and needing answers. I don't like that I must leave him at 11:00 and can't come back until 1:00. I don't understand...he's only two." Next door, Emily said hello to one mother and she just started to cry. What do you do? You hug and you pray.

Life is fragile. 

I worked my way down the hall playing peek-a-boo and got very few smiles. Could it be that these children just needed mommy or daddy? I think so. I made my way into a room with a nine year old boy who had been the victim of a car accident. His mother stroking his little arm, him staring off into space, making sounds of pain. She was asked to leave as they were getting ready to work on him. No one was with him, so I stood by his side. As I reached out to touch him, his monitors started going off. I glanced up and saw that his heart rate was all over the place. It was fast and high and then it would slow down and be barely there. A nurse and a doctor came in and asked me to leave.

Life is fragile.

I have a cousin whose four year old son, Piet, has been battling neuroblastoma, a very aggressive childhood cancer. He has been put to sleep somewhere between 75-100 times. His little body is tired and having trouble rebounding from this last anesthesia. He has a urinary tract infection...E-coli. His feeding tube has stomach acid leaking out of it because his gut is not waking up. He is four...

Life is fragile.

Yes, life is fragile. It is so fragile that God sent His one and only Son to earth to walk through the exact same fragile that we face daily. He sent Jesus to bear stripes for our healing and hang on a cross for our sins. He sent Jesus, so that, when we have days that want to break us into, we can lean into Him and be wrapped up in His peace. A peace that is beyond understanding.

Emmanuel, God with us, has promised to never leave us or forsake us, even when life is fragile.