Phan Thị Kim Phúc Napalm Girl, Part 2

Cao ?ài is a patchwork of different faiths: Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, to name a few. Its adherents believe in multiple gods, and its goal is for people to become gods themselves. That may sound enticing to some, but for Kim—the severely burned “Napalm Girl”—Cao ?ài was the religion in which she had been raised, and it was not doing her any good.

Kim was hurting. Kim was angry. Kim was lost. And no matter how many times she pleaded to her gods for a way out of that cage of suffering and exploitation, nothing happened.

In desperation she went to the library, grabbing book after book off the shelf. One of these had to have the answer, the purpose to her life, the solution to her pain. In the stack was a New Testament; after spending an hour reading the Gospels, Kim discarded the other books. There was something about this Man, Jesus.

The accounts of Jesus’ life described how He had been beaten and ridiculed and died a most horrific death, and how He had wept and cried aloud in unbearable suffering—that was like her. He was God, but He had gone through what she was going through, except much worse. He had scars too, like she did, except His were for her. She had never known that about Jesus.

It was this Jesus who held the answers to her most precious questions. From that day forth, Kim continued to study the Bible. She began to realize how much she needed what Jesus promised in His Word. She was filled with so much hate. She hated that bomb and the man who dropped it, she hated that pointless failure of a war, she hated those men to whom she smiled and nodded and for whom she lied.

So on Christmas Eve of that same year, Kim gave her life to Jesus. She asked Him to take away her anger and hatred and bitterness and give her that peace His Word promised—and Jesus did. Kim was finally able to forgive. From there, Kim found her purpose: to share her testimony of what God did for her to the world.

Reflect: Are you holding onto grudges? Are you reliving painful memories? Bring your burdens to Jesus, “[t]he Sun of Righteousness [who] shall arise with healing in His wings” (Malachi 4:2). Let God’s forgiveness take your pain and bury it in the deepest ocean.

Key Bible Texts

Then saith he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. (John 20:27 KJV)