Save the Children

Local media recently carried the story of baby Ryan. He was found barely alive, 2 days old, dumped into a drain. The lady who found him took him to the hospital where they managed to save his life and get him back to good health. He has now been put in foster care. (Just in, an update - the woman who "found" the baby was his mother, who dumped him in the first place!)

Stories like these make me weep. Especially since becoming a mom (prior to which I didn't much care for kids).

Who in their right mind throws a baby away?

We've all heard of the dumpster babies, the abandoned ones, the children who live on the streets rather than face what's at "home". There's an organization in Johannesburg that has a "baby post-box" - a special, safe, heated place for people to place an unwanted baby, instead of throwing it away. An alarm rings inside if an infant is placed in the box, so the folk in charge can go get it immediately, no questions asked, and take care of it.

There are children found in long-drop toilets - babies who have been born to a young mother who took a "toilet break" in the middle of her final high school exams, to go give birth. Young girls too terrified and overwhelmed to do anything else than leave the baby where it emerged from its safe and warm world into the harshest one a child should never have to face.

Morning news reported South Africa has horribly high rates of rape and wife-beating. That a woman or child is raped once every minute. For many this is the life they know - that of terror and pain and never-ending hell.

But the children - oh the children! Who in their right mind does such damage to a little one, to one who should be living with wide-eyed wonder and joy, playing without a care - not dumped or abandoned or neglected or abused.

I used to wish, when I read of an abandoned baby, that whoever had thrown it away would rather come drop it at my doorstep. I would surely give it the love and life they couldn't, cherish it as a heaven-granted treasure. Of course no-one ever has. I used to pray that God would somehow let me take on all the abandoned kids one day in heaven, give them a parent. Of course we're not even sure if that's how heaven works. But I used to pray anyway.

Too often the malignant evil in society shows up in how we treat our children. No respect for the God-given creations around us translates into no respect for the human blessings He bestows. They, like the planet we live on, the air we breathe, the throw-away society we support, are disposable, a possession, ours to do with as we wish with no consideration for how our actions ripple into the future.

So my heart bleeds as child after child is forced to face a harsh reality they don't deserve, feel emotions they should never feel, and hurt like they never should.

Oh Lord, help us save the children!