Sunita’s Eyes

Sunita* is a beautiful 12-year-old girl, fully enjoying life at the Mission. She is a joy to see around the campus and has a smile that would brighten up even the worst of days. Unfortunately, Sunita was born to unmarried parents. Having a child out of wedlock carries heavy social shame in most parts of India. The social stigma brought about by Sunita’s birth would have been extremely heavy for Sunita’s mother. And nothing is known of her father.

Bearing the guilt of her baby’s illegitimate birth, Sunita’s mother handed her and all her birthrights over to an institute. She didn’t want to live the rest of her life stained, and so sought to keep her daughter’s birth a secret. Sunita has never known her parents. Through God’s grace, Sunita was taken to a Christian care home within her mother’s reach, even though her mother was not a Christian.

In her previous care home, she was well looked after and happy, but her foster parents grew old and worried about Sunita’s future should she stay with them. So it was that she was brought to the Mission where she is now a flourishing member of a Flower Family. Upon moving to the Mission, she missed her foster parents very much but with a smile will recall how nothing was too difficult: “This is a good place; everyone is helping and loving each other.” Sunita’s life is full of the abundance of friends she now has here at the Mission.

Sunita loves to learn. Her favorite subject in school? Science. She bubbles, “I love to study about living things; from science we get knowledge.” Sunita wants to be an engineer.

Sunita knows more than most, even at her young age, what it is to be seen through the eyes of the Lord and the difference His Sight has made in her life. Unsurprisingly her favorite song is Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord. Asked what she feels God is teaching her and she answers with simplicity: “to help others and to do good things.” There is much we can learn from Sunita’s desire to be light in a world that rejected and failed to love her when she was born.

*Names changed for privacy and security. Images representative.