When I read about little children dying from winter cold in the refugee camps in northern Afghanistan, I weep.  Most of them are too young to even know why they were born.  And now they are dead.
     Yet driven by a range of agendas, political and military machinations continue apace, their outcomes often determining the fates of these little ones, these little ones who have no inkling of the larger forces that are shaping their destiny.  All they know is that they are bitterly and horribly cold.
     How great the disparity.  When I backpack during the winter, dealing with temperatures that are often well below zero, I surround myself with the finest insulation my money allows me to buy.  Yet I'm backpacking in these temperatures not because I need to, but because I can.  I have a choice.
     Not so these little ones.  They had no choice as to where they were born, they had no choice as to whether they will eat.  They are simply here.  And all too soon, they will not be here.  It's tragic.
     Well, some of us may say, this is simply the result of sin.  It's a broken world, and bad things happen.  Evil reigns.
     Maybe so (and these are immense thoughts and questions), but the disparity remains horrific.  Pray for yourself, pray for the planet.  Pray for the human heart.