Tales of the Talking Tiger

At age 18 she was reported missing. Yet she wasn’t missing, her father knew exactly where she was. He had locked her in the cellar beneath the family home, and there she lived for the next 24 years, never seeing a sliver of daylight as he sexually abused her. This abuse begot seven children, the oldest of whom is now 19 years old, and saw daylight for the first time last week. Three of these children lived with their mother in the cellar, one died, whilst the other three were removed from their mother and mysteriously arrived one day on the doorstep of the family home. The grandmother (wife of the abuser, who had no idea about the abuse), was actually responsible for unknowingly raising three of her daughter’s children.

It is a horrific story, and the details are only coming to light gradually now. The latest details and related coverage are in the Sydney Morning Herald.

This is an incident that demands justice, doesn’t it? Is there a person hearing of this ordeal that doesn’t demand that justice be done? Yet the father, the perpetrator of these horrific crimes, is now 73. How many years should he serve for these crimes? A lifetime? Yet he would have no more than 20 years left in him, and most likely much less. Try explaining that to the victims whose lives have been irreparably scarred. How do you reimburse a woman for 24 years of her life that have been lost?

Don’t you see the inadequacy of human justice? I’m am comforted by God’s justice, as the writer of Ecclesiastes puts it:

“I thought to myself, “God will judge both the righteous and the wicked; for there is an appropriate time for every activity, and there is a time of judgment for every deed.”
(Eccl 3:17 NET)

And then again in Acts:

“he has set a day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:31 NET)

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