I was standing in the middle of a slum by a railroad track in India when this little girl walked up to me. I was instantly captivated by her. She was obviously one of the railway children, one of thousands of homeless children who use the railway system to live. They collect water bottles for money, eat someone else’s leftovers for dinner, and call whatever railway station they end up at home for the night. Despite the grim situation she lived in daily, it was her confidence that grabbed my attention. I wondered where her confidence came from. Was it the friend she had just made, the latest meal she collected or her independence? Was she always this confident or was it just the moment I caught her in? What was her life like when the darkness seemed overwhelming and the future looked bleak? If statistics are any indication (less than 10% of people in India know who Christ is), this confidence probably wasn’t from the same source as mine.
I never learned her name, but I’ll never forget her face. I frequently pray for her. I pray that God would redeem her from her situation, that she would overflow with confidence in Him. I hope that the next time we meet on those railway tracks in India, she will be leading her generation in the confident hope of Christ and Christ alone.
