ALL THE CHILDREN

In a cemetery on Long Island is a child’s gravestone that reads: “Let the children come unto me.” It was engraved about 29 years ago, and the wording is from the New Testament. It has become a rallying point to which I base my life on, all children, no matter what denomination, color, origin, or age. It only matters to me that they are in need.

I know that the world, and God himself do indeed work in strange ways. There are children that need medical help, emotional help, and even financial help, that go un-noticed, who lack care and are in need of our concerns. One of the greatest human beings, Danny Thomas, built a hospital in honor of St. Jude, for children, and that hospital has been answering prayers through the years. Thomas claims that he prayed for help and vowed that if his prayer were answered, he would build that hospital. But where are the rest of us going with our lives? How do we fill the real void that exists out there for children? Who will pick up the pieces of a shattered life of an abused child? Who can feed one before he learns to steal and perhaps hurt in order to survive? Which one of us is willing to grasp the hand of an emotionally bereft child, and lead him out of the darkness? How will we reclaim the lives of those parents in despair, who watch the dreams they had for their child, a child with mental disabilities who can’t even walk or see or speak?

Let us look for a moment at the children that are put up for adoption, because the mother could not for whatever reason, keep her child. Her sacrifice goes unheralded: sometimes she is even condemned. But what she did was for the good of the child. The hope that she has is for her child’s happiness, so she does the most painful thing a mother can do. Don’t condemn her, don’t pity her, just realize that she gave her child priority. She gave her child a fighting chance!

There are parents out there that desperately fight for their children, advocate for a child that has broken promise because of an illness or deformity, or emotional deprivation. Yet, these parents stand up and deal everyday with those issues, providing love and support. What do they ask for? They ask for our help, they plead the case of the outnumbered; the out gunned, the underfinanced, so that they can help their children have a normal life. They don’t demand, they don’t call for entitlements, and they don’t complain about their problems. They come in all the colors of the rainbow, all the sects we proclaim in God’s name, and even those without His mention.

There is a woman I am very proud of, who today being her birthday: twice suffered a nightmare, and: no one could imagine it. She and her husband have lifted the darkness of losing two children, and bring light into the lives of other children. They teach children, and give them purpose for the lives of these innocents. They also bring comfort to others and joy when they are present. They did not close themselves off, but rallied like the heroes that they are.

This blogue is written for Joseph, Brandon, Thomas, Sam, Seth, Ava, and all the children that had or have the love of their parents, and for all those children that have nothing but pain and abuse, and hopelessness.

Pray for all the children.