Beside a Dry Well

As we journey through Advent this year, we reflect once more on the Christmas story. For most of us in the modern world, its hard to imagine what it would have been like for Mary, a young girl, pregnant before her marriage to Joseph, living in the Middle East, where unwed mothers still face enormous prejudices for breaking with cultural and moral norms. A worker in Tunisia shares with us this story…

Nura shuffles along the dusty lane between two cactus hedges contemplating her options. If she leans against the cactus, she wonders, will the spikes be long enough to pierce her heart?

The lane leading to the main road would take 35 minutes to walk. Nura has heard about a hospital in the city where a baby could be left, but it would take money and knowledge to get there. She has neither.

Deep in her dilemma she fails to notice a van drawing up next to her. Meriem, her neighbour, leans out to greet her. Unnerved, Nura’s thoughts scatter to Meriem’s brother who has cornered her in the sheep pen, time and again, when he knew the others were all out of earshot.

Still in a fog, Nura fails to offer a handshake or the usual kiss in greeting. Her problems are far too great to worry about protocol. Meriem works as a nurse in the local clinic. Perhaps she could offer a ride but Nura is suddenly aware that she might also notice the telling signs of her shame. Nura hangs her head and kicks a pebble on the dusty road as Meriem chats, asking how everyone is at home.

As the van drives away in a swirl of dust, Nura’s thoughts come into focus. She does not have the courage to ask for help, and she will not make the trip down that lane to the hospital alone; she has no idea how to get to the big city. Confessing to her family would lead to an inevitable outcome, which is suddenly clear in her imagination.

That night, Nura’s sisters fall asleep before she comes to lie down on a mat in their living room. At dawn, Nura is neither asleep nor in the kitchen helping, and they panic. Afraid to tell their father, they search for three hours before finding her body. At the bottom of the dry well.

Nura’s predicament is not unique to her. Young women who suffer the shame of an unwanted pregnancy in Muslim countries, not always through abusive situations, find no socially acceptable means of caring for their baby. In some countries, these women are imprisoned in order to save them from an honor killing. Nura’s story is based on true events. She died, alone at the bottom of a well, but was it an accident, a suicide, or an honor killing?

This week a mutual friend told me that this girls’ nephew, age nine, has had two dreams about Jesus. One of his aunts (not related to the girl in the story but an in-law to “Nura”) is a believer and has been praying for this family for twenty years.

Let’s join in her prayers and ask that Jesus be revealed to this whole family:

Ask that the dream that the boy has had will also be dreamt by other members of the family.
Pray for opportunities for the believing Aunt to share the gospel with the boy and his family.
Pray that God will soften and prepare their hearts to receive the truth.
Ask for the precious gift of salvation to come to this family this Christmas season.