Life, Liberty, and Superman Sheets...

 http://danieldenardo.blogspot.com/search/label/Christianity

"...as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possesing all things."

-2 Cor 6:10

The image is sparse, marked by the absence of excess.  The bed of an orphan in Jamaica.  Underneath is a small suitcase, containing this child's all, and on top is a single bed sheet, a Superman sheet, no less, betraying the profundity in the simplicity of the scene.

The photographer suggests paradoxically that this child is wealthy beyond words, not because of what he has, but because of Who he knows, because of Who knows him, and loves him, and because of the lives of the people surrounding him who personify this Love.  The intrinsic value of his life consisting in things not temporal, not easily found and not easily taken away. 

Unwarranted is the scaffolding of the superflous that holds up so many of our lives these days, our structures compromised and weakened for all the leaning we've done on shaky supports and surrogate strengths, excess at every level and the forgotten freedom of simplicity.

We observe with our Western eyes this child, this "less fortunate" one, a day in whose life has been valued at "the price of a cup of coffee", and our hearts fill with pity (what room there is left for pity)...

...but I wonder, as the message of the rickety bed with the singular suitcase and the Superman sheet seeps into my soul...

.........Who is the more pitiable?............

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"And THIS IS LIFE, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent."

-John 17:3