Is this your child?
Is this your little guy? Do you recognize this face? If you
could hear his voice, would it be familiar? How about his laughter? Would it be
the distinct sound of joy that makes your own heart melt? His little hand in
yours; in that moment, does it make everything right in the world?
He’s not, is he?
But what if he was?
didn’t eat yesterday…
have anyone to give his precious little hugs to…
Does it really matter? Does it?
With our mouths, with our minds, we say, “of course it
matters! This is inhumane!!” but what do our actions really say?
Orphan is the term we use for 145 million children in this
world. A number that is exponentially growing. Of the 145 million orphans, an
estimated 143 million of those children are suffering from malnutrition.
400,000 of these kids will die this year…
400,000.
Today, 1,095 will die.
In the 10 minutes it has taken you to read this, right at 8
orphans will have died.
Today, November 14th, is World Orphans Day. It’s
not a day that we should have to “celebrate.”
This isn’t a terrible disease like Cancer or
Parkinson’s, that we don’t have cures for. There is a cure, a solution to this
epidemic. It’s you… This huge problem takes one person saying I am willing to do something about it…
“That one life matters! I will love him!”
Then it grows to 10 people, then 50 people, then 2,000, and one day these 145 million children that aren’t being love, won’t be a “problem.”
So what if he was yours? What if he was your starving,
malnutritioned, unloved little boy? What would you do about it… Even more importantly,
What has Jesus called us to do…
Dude… this is awesome. So convicting and definitely worth sharing to everyone I know. Thank you for writing this, and thank you for being who God has called you to be. Love.
Exactly. 🙂
Good word!
Wow. This makes me smile. Not because of the hard tragic facts, but because when I started advocating for the orphan more than 25 years ago, this is exactly the sort of thing I was writing. It is full of purpose, passion, compassion, and truth. You are truly a ‘brother of heart.’ Thanks for writing this. It stirred me once again as I prepare in a couple days to return to Haiti to care for orphans.
Good stuff BoBo. A hard word to read. God’s call to us all.