What Do You Do With 150,000

I've been saturating myself with the reports and images from Haiti. The interviews with individuals - their stories of rescue and loss pull deeply on my heart, but I find it so difficult to wrap my head and heart around 150,000 lives lost. At some number, though I don't know what, I lose sight of the person and it becomes a people. And at some point a people becomes bodies, and beyond that bodies becomes piles to fill mass graves, and we who read the news struggle to process the tragedy. My heart is just not large enough to see the faces in the masses. We understand losing a family member or perhaps many family members and friends. We can imagine losing a neighborhood, but beyond that, I imagine many of us cannot go there mentally or emotionally.

This morning I was reading in Matthew 12 and was struck by a Savior who lived amongst the masses and yet sought out the individuals. I was humbled by his tenderness towards the weak and broken, his elevation of love over religious practice, and how he cut straight to the hearts of the lost. Matthew reflects on Jesus's life and remembers Isaiah 42: 1-4,

1 "Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him
and he will bring justice to the nations.

2 He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.

3 A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

4 he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his law the islands will put their hope."