Don't Look The Other Way
"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." -- Romans 12:21
The news seemed shocking at best. A mother killed her two teenage children. She planned the murders. She bought a gun and did the unthinkable.
She is obviously mentally ill. Warning signs? Probably everywhere. But we make excuses. We fail to see. Mothers aren't supposed to hate their children. Abuse doesn't happen to families like ours, living in "good" neighborhoods with respectible family incomes. Why are we so blind?
Not all parents love their children. Mothers are capable of being just as mean and cruel as fathers. Maybe more so. It's like the absence of maternal love manifests itself into a hatred that is often beyond comprehension.
Maybe we don't see the signs because we refuse to look. We explain away the words, the actions, the neglect, because we can't understand such horror this close to home. Those children called out for help. The "experts" determined there was no real danger. Two teens are dead. How real is that?
And what if there had been no murders, just years and years of abuse? Would that have made the inactions of others okay? Would the unseen scars that come from a parent's rejection have been justified so that we wouldn't have to deal with the ugliness of child abuse?
No one ever truly knows what goes on in another person's home. But a child crying out for help deserves to be heard. We are not called to look the other way but rather to get dirty if need be in the service of the Lord. Do you really think that Jesus would have minded his own business and walked away?
A little intervention might have saved the lives of two children. And that is something we .call have to live with.
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