Saturday, June 15, 2012

Pray For Hurting Children Everywhere

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. -- 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

They meant well. They did. The person(s) who lamented the sorrow and hurt that John Edwards’ children have endured because of his actions and the death of their mother meant well. But to say that “no children” have endured worse was just such an exaggeration. Because many children have and do endure much worse.

I don’t want to belittle what the Edwards’ children have been through. They’ve suffered hurt, no doubt about it. But they also have lived without worrying about food or shelter. They’ve been loved by family and friends. Their uncertain lives have had many certainties other children don’t have.

Like the little boy mentioned in People magazine. His mother lost her job and now she and her children are living in a motel also inhabited with prostitutes and drug addicts. That eight-year-old helps feed his family by bringing home a backpack filled with food from school each Friday afternoon. He misses his old home and the basketball hoop that was at the end of the driveway. He’s suffering, too, through no fault of his own.

Or what about the grandchildren of a dear, sweet woman who lives in a neighboring community? This woman and her husband took the children in many years ago because their mother -- the couple’s daughter -- couldn’t stay off drugs and care for herself and her children. The older woman suffers from diabetes and congestive heart failure. She recently had a stroke and is now paralyzed on one side.

While the woman was hospitalized, the daughter returned to “care” for her children. Or so the world thought. Until the day she fell in the door and her daughter called 911. The woman was still on drugs -- and had stolen her mother’s jewelry and other items to feed her habit.

The children are now with their grandmother’s sister in a town 80 miles away. Their lives are uncertain and tragic. They didn’t ask for a drug-addicted mother. And they certain didn’t ask that their grandmother, the one person who has loved and cared for them no matter what, would now be unable to care for anyone, including herself.

This doesn’t even touch on the children around the world who are starving, dying from preventable diseases, sold into slavery, and abused on every level. Have the Edwards’ children suffered? Absolutely. But the saddest thing is that so many children suffer so much more every single day.

Paul tells us that God comforts us in our times of trouble so that we can then comfort others. I pray that these children will feel God’s Presence in their lives and that they will turn their tragedies into hope for other children around the world.