The Size of Our God

Children in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya

“…God transcends physical dimension.  It is not possible to define Him by human standards of size and measurement.  This is the God who created the universe, and the atom, and everything we see and feel and experience [1].”

Individually and in small groups, 20,000 children orphaned or separated from their families by the brutal Sudanese civil war, set off to walk 1000 miles through the African bush to safety [2].

Without adult help or supervision, without provisions, the children (some as young as 7 y.o.) dodged bullets; eluded gangs out to recruit “child soldiers”; braved wild animals; and forded raging rivers – all the while battling hunger, thirst, disease, and exhaustion [3][4].

For some, the journey lasted two years [5A].  Half died before finally reaching refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya.  A large number spent the remainder of their adolescence in those camps [5B].

About 3800 would ultimately emigrate to the United States [5C].  Known as the “lost boys”, these children were confronted by a wholly foreign culture.

Suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the pain of prolonged separation from loved ones, isolation, and discrimination, they, nonetheless, persevered.  Several, like US Olympian Lopez Lomong, have since written about their ordeal [6][7].  Others are now returning to the Sudan, to help rebuild their war-torn nation.

The size of our God frequently determines the measure of our devotion [8].  Truly, God is greater than our adversity.  But until we are tested, we may not realize that.

For these children, God was not an abstraction.  He was nothing less than life, itself.

“O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art”

–How Great Thou Art by Stuart Keene Hine,
Copyright © Universal Music Publishing Group

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[1]  Compelling Truth, “How big is God?”, Copyright © 2011-2020 Got Questions Ministries, https://www.compellingtruth.org/how-big-is-God.html.

[2]  Black Past, “Second Sudanese Civil War” by Samuel Momodu, 12/23/18, https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/second-sudanese-civil-war-1983-2005/.

[3]  International Rescue Committee, “The Lost Boys of Sudan”, https://www.rescue.org/article/lost-boys-sudan.

[4]  Accord, “Understanding the Recruitment of Child Soldiers in Africa”, https://www.accord.org.za/conflict-trends/understanding-recruitment-child-soldiers-africa/.

[5A, 5B, and 5C]  Wikipedia, “Lost Boys of Sudan”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Boys_of_Sudan.

[6]  Running for My Life by Lopez Lomong and Mark Tabb (2012).

[7]  The Lost Boy: The true story of a young boy’s flight from Sudan to South Africa by Aher Arop Bol (2009).

[8]  Worship Network,”The Size of God”, 4/27/10, http://worship.net/2010/04/the-size-of-god/.

READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse  https://avoicereclaimed.com