Look what children in Ukraine draw in their sketch pads
It was the last day of 2023. My husband and I were sitting in church, listening to the church announcements. In front of us sat a family with two boys. I watched as one of them, about ten years old, quietly sat and drew something in his sketch pad.
Instantly, my thoughts took me to my own childhood, where mom and dad took all six of us to church, and also gave us paper and pencils to draw (anything to keep us quiet!) I smiled as I remembered what I loved to draw at his age; princesses and marshmallow clouds, trees and mountains and my dream bicycle…
When we all stood up to sing, the little boy left his sketch pad on the pew, and I was able to see his drawing clearly. Yet what stared up at me wasn’t a dragon or a robot or a dream car; it was far from it.
What the ten-year old boy had drawn was a Russian missile attacking a high-rise building, and a Ukrainian soldier attempting to intercept the death-carrying rocket bomb to protect the people…
I nudged my husband. “Look what children in Ukraine draw in their sketch pads,” I whispered sadly.
Children, whose childhood is filled with nightly terror as they wake up from the shrill of air raid sirens or the trembling of the earth from loud explosions outside their windows.
Children who don’t understand why their favourite cartoon was cut off short because the power suddenly went out again.
Children who see their father twice a year because they’re out on the front line, defending their country.
Children who’ve lost their houses, their best friends, their schools and towns and cities.
And the children, who will never open their eyes again, because the neighbouring country has already decided their fates…
We soon all stood up to pray, and I took my heavy heart and pleas to God, again and again and again. These children don’t deserve their childhood to be stripped from them. It’s been another Christmas in a war-torn country, and we’re starting the new year in basements and bomb shelters.
How much longer, Lord…?
Angela
SGA, Ukrain
