Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

– Matthew 18:10

In The San Fransicso Call, Sunday, March 7, 1895, appears a story of neglected children. There is no doubt that similar cases (many much worse) have occured within the span of our shared human history, and the evidence would convict our world that it continues this evil even in this time of supposed enlightenment.

What are the factors in play here? A husband and father who completely disregards his duties and obligations. We don’t know how his actions might have led to his wife’s demise and downward spiral into the chasm of alchohol abuse, but she obviously lost every worldly thing as a result.

And so who is left to attend to the needs of the helpless?

One of the biggest challenges in this life for me is to understand that God, for his purposes, allows situations to play themselves out to a certain point. If this weren’t the case, then we would never read stories like the one below.

In this case there was, in accord with God’s timetable, a report to an organization founded to address just such situations as this. And then there was an honorable officer who immediately recognized the need to remove the children from their home. And lastly, there were structures in place to house and care for the children once removed from their home.

I think it goes without saying that there are at present many children who are living in similar or worse situations. What God likely looks down upon in sadness, anger,  compassion, or a combination of all three is something that should not fail to gain and keep our attention. Even though we might not have first hand knowledge of any particular situation, we should still maintain an awareness that there are children in desparate circumstances through absolutely no fault of their own.

And so I encourage you to seek God’s will on how he would make use of your time, efforts, and prayers on behalf of neglected, abused and mistreated children.

In a future post I will provide some information about the organization mentioned in this article, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. It is still in operation today, but until I read this article I had never heard of it. If you are thinking that its name is similar to that of an organization dedicated to preventing cruelty to animals you might be surprised to learn that this similarity is not a matter of chance.

Here’s the article: