In the Image of God

Let me just shed a tear here on Java Jesus for Emily Sander. I never heard of her before I read the gleeful, smirking stories in the press: "Missing College Student May Have Had a Secret Life as a Porn Star." But, she had a secret life as a human being, too. It didn't matter that much, though, until they found out we could see her boobs on the internet. Still I see a sparkling specimen of humanity, a kid who just yesterday was climbing a tree or riding a bike, or writing on her backpack. In the Image of God.

I wish I could have shown her some sort of kindness in the days of her short life. I wish I knew something kind to say about her, and I’m sure there is something that could be said. I want to pray for her, but she is dead. Tissue and specimens and slides and samples. Something to be studied, no more to be loved.

Here in the end, only God knows the depth of wonders and the real beauty that lived in this little child of his. May God receive her soul, and vindicate her name, and may he crown her with life in the Resurrection of the Dead.

Goodbye, little girl.