During that time, Sara gets to know Julien, whom she largely ignored during their time in school. He teaches her what he learns in their class so she doesn’t fall behind, and tells her about the latest news and films. He even brings her art supplies to keep her occupied during the day when he is gone. In return, Sara tells Julien about the places she has visited with her parents, since he has never left their small village. She paints a stunning visual picture so detailed that he can begin to see it, and she helps him begin to use his imagination to see the world with all the beauty it has to offer. In these ways, they help one another through the different kinds of captivity they both experience due to the injustice of the world.
This story gives an answer to the question: What do we do while we wait for justice to come? However, audiences may still wonder, do small acts of kindness like these really matter in the face of great evil like the Holocaust?
Trapped in Darkness
One of the most dark and difficult things for people to experience is feeling trapped, a fact which can clearly be seen in prisons. In the article “How Prison Changes People” by the BBC, an inmate explained “if you are hardened in the beginning then you become even harder, you become even colder.” In prisons, people frequently experience “chronic loss of free choice, lack of privacy, daily stigma” and fear. These kinds of things cause a person’s personality and behaviors to change in a profound way which often stays with inmates long after their sentences end.
In White Bird, Sara describes the toll that being stuck in Julien’s family barn takes on her, causing her to begin to lose hope as she sees the darkness and cruelty around her. The only saving grace she experiences is the time that Julien and his family spend with her and the little acts of kindness they show her. Times of darkness reveal “how much hate people are capable of and how much courage it takes to be kind.” Those small acts of kindness “remind us of our humanity.”
In the book Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Proposal, Matthew T. Martens, who holds a law degree and MDiv, recommends that responding to injustice in a “measured, patient, and kind” way is necessary for true reform to occur.1 As White Bird shows, kindness is needed to remind people of their humanity. Responding in a measured, patient, and kind way is the best and most hope-creating way for Christians to respond to any darkness and difficulty in the world.2
Stories of Kindness in the Bible
There are many examples of precisely this kindness in the Bible. When Joseph’s brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery, God redeemed this act of cruelty so that Joseph’s family could be saved from starvation (Genesis 37-50). However, in order for this to happen, Joseph had to choose to forgive his brothers, showing kindness to them and using his position of authority to provide for them. But he didn’t do this blindly: he tested his brothers to see if they were remorseful for their actions. Similarly, in White Bird, although Julien and Sara show kindness to one another, they actively fight against the cruelty of their fellow classmate who chooses to fight with the Nazis and targets them specifically.
Another story of kindness in the Bible that shows humanity in the midst of difficulty is the story of Ruth. After her husband and sons all die, Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, decides to return to her homeland because there is nothing left for her in Moab. Rather than abandon Naomi to go on her own, Ruth goes with her, despite it meaning that she will travel to a land that isn’t her own. Because she does, she is able to care for and provide for Naomi. This leads her to meet Boaz, who falls in love with her because of her hard work and the kindness she shows towards Naomi and himself. Boaz ends up marrying Ruth and later we discover them both in the genealogy of Jesus.
These and other examples show the ways that God uses kindness in the face of difficulty and darkness. In his goodness, he shows how kindness and patience can change lives for the better.
God’s Fight against Darkness
Sometimes people don’t want to be kind in the face of injustice because they have a strong sense of things being ‘right’ and ‘wrong.’ This sense of morality is given to people by God, and shouldn’t be pushed aside. They are right that injustice is wrong, and things that are wrong should be righted. However, we must remember that God is the ultimate Judge (Romans 12:19) who has called us to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).
Final justice isn’t ours to take in this life. We don’t need to worry about winning the ultimate battle against sin and death. In the book of Revelation we see that God has already taken care of the final outcome. But this being the case doesn’t make enduring the injustice any easier. We still have to fight a day-to-day battle to keep the darkness and difficulty that lurks in ourselves, others, and the unseen realm from bringing ourselves and others down. Keeping goodness and kindness thriving, as portrayed in White Bird, is one way we can overcome difficulty and create beauty in the midst of darkness.3