The sins of the fathers

To the child (one of the many):

I saw you a year ago. You were with your family, and you were a happy little toddler. I knew your name and even your birthday before I met you.  Unfortunately, I met you in a court room, and I was assisting a party in the case involving you. I was glad for you that you knew nothing of what transpired then.  I hope you still remain as happy as you were till this day.

Yours was a case that made me upset in many ways. It left me with many late nights in the law office drafting documents which I hope you will never ever read in your life. It even made me hate the practice of law when I became part of an arsenal of sharpened instruments to inflict as much discomfort to your parent. I cringed when I saw you  - the pangs of guilt, perhaps even shame running somewhere in me. That courtroom was not a place that you should have been there. 

I am working on your case  past midnight again. Tonight, just like many nights ago, is only the starting of the many to come - I hope I am proven wrong on this. Again, it is about you but you are not there. It is difficult to draft the court documents. The seemingly cold, objective legal terms have become a name for reifying the desires and interests of all the parties except yours. Your interest (being the paramount consideration) is tossed around in name by everyone, when in reality it is really for advancing their own interest. 

The biblical concept of the “sin of the fathers” is not unreal - because children will experience and eat of the fruits of the wrongdoings of a previous generation. And often, the toxins from the fruits of the poison tree will run to the next generation. 

I wondered what it will be like if I meet you years down the road. I prayed that in spite of all that has happened, that somehow, you will be preserved from the wickedness around; that justice will eventually prevail. And this is my hope: 

“that both of His hands are equally skilled, at ruining evil; equally skilled at judging the judges and administering justice; equally skilled at showing mercy and loving the loveless. Equally skilled, administering justice - both of His hands” - Jon Foreman