Recently I’ve had cause to reflect on the fact that in time, some tragedies can result in triumphs. I was reminded of this in a powerful way after coming across Kim Phuc’s story.
While you may not know the name of the 9-year-old girl seriously burned and traumatized for life during the Vietnam war when a napalm bomb was dropped on the religious pagoda (a temple considered a holy place that no soldiers, not even the Americans would ever target) where she was hiding. You certainly have seen the photo depicting one of the many human tragedies of the war in Vietnam.
As difficult as it is to view the photo and imagine the pain inflicted during this incident, I was incredibly moved when recently introduced to the rest of the story summarized in the enclosed article by Randy Alcorn from the Eternal Perspective Ministries website. I hope you too find this thought provoking.
Phan Thi Kim Phuc’s Story: The Beauty of Forgiveness
by
Randy Alcorn
January 24, 2020
One of the best-known photographs from the Vietnam War is a Pulitzer Prize–winning picture of a young burn victim running in terror, arms outstretched, after a napalm bomb was dropped on her village. After months of hospitalization and multiple surgeries, nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc returned to her family.
What doctors couldn’t heal, Kim Phuc says, was her heart: “The anger inside me was like a hatred high as a mountain.”
But God reached out to Kim Phuc. She found a Bible and talked with a believer who invited her to church, where Kim Phuc chose to trust in Christ: “Jesus helped me learn to forgive my enemies.”
Fourteen years later, while speaking in Washington, DC, she met John Plummer, who had helped coordinate the air strike on her childhood village.
John wrote of their meeting, “She held out her arms to me and embraced me. All I could say was, ‘I’m sorry; I’m so sorry’, over, and over again. At the same time, she was saying, ‘It’s all right; it’s all right; I forgive; I forgive.’”
Today, Kim Phuc heads up KIM Foundation International. Its mission is “to help heal the wounds suffered by innocent children and to restore hope and happiness to their lives.”
Kim Phuc’s story demonstrates Romans 8:28 in action: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose”.
Now, no translation of Romans 8:28 says “each thing by itself is good,” but “all things work together for good,” and not on their own, but under God’s sovereign hand.
I needn’t say, “It’s good,” if my house burns down, I’m robbed and beaten, or my child dies—or in Kim Phuc’s case, being terribly burned in childhood and suffering a lifetime of physical effects as a result.
But God, in His wisdom, uses our circumstances to produce something wonderful—Christlikeness—for His glory and our ultimate joy.
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