Some years back a reporter covering the conflict in Sarajevo saw a little girl shot by a sniper.The back of her head had been torn away by the bullet.
The reporter threw down his pad and pencil and stopped being a reporter for a few minutes. He rushed to the man who was holding the child and helped them both into his car.
As the reporter stepped on the accelerator, racing to the hospital, the man holding the bleeding child said, "Hurry, my friend. My child is still alive."
A moment or two later he pleaded, "Hurry my friend. My child is still breathing."
A moment later, "Hurry, my friend. My child is still warm."
Finally, "Hurry. Oh my God, my child is getting cold."
By the time they arrived at the hospital, the little girl had died.
As the two men were in the lavatory, washing the blood off their hands and their clothes, the man turned to the reporter and said, "This is a terrible task for me. I must go tell her father that his child is dead. He will be heartbroken."
The reporter was amazed. He looked at the grieving man and said, "I thought she was your child."
The man looked back and said, "No, but aren't they all our children?’
Indeed. Those who suffer belong to all of us. And if all of us respond, there is hope.
Max Lucado, Outlive Your Life Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010, 48-49.
Related
Save One Life. Save the World, SFS, 18 October 2010.
Max Lucado Experiences Transformation in Devastated Guatemala, SFS, 12 October 2010.
Oh to Hear a Human Voice, SFS, 10 October 2010.
Max Lucado Realizes What One Meal Can Do, SFS, 9 October 2010.
When Max Lucado Encountered Mother Teresa, SFS, 8 October 2010.
When Max Lucado Forgot the Bread, SFS, 8 October 2010.
Finding Father Benjamin: A Fable by Max Lucado, SFS, 5 October 2010.
Becoming More Ourselves, SFS, 16 January 2007.
Learning to Listen, SFS, 10 September 2006.
Geoff Pound
Geoff Pound’s new book on gratitude is described at this link: Talk About Thanksgiving.
Image: “No, but aren't they all our children?”
