Aren’t They All Our Children?

Jim Wallis, in WHO SPEAKS FOR GOD tells about a sad and terrifying incident that occurred during the tragic war in Sarajevo not too many years back. A reporter who was covering the violence in the middle of the city saw a little girl fatally shot by a sniper. The reporter threw down his pad and pencil and rushed to the aid of a man who was now holding the child. He helped them both into his car and sped off to a hospital.

"Hurry, my friend," the man urged, “My child is still alive.” A moment or two later he pleaded, "Hurry, my friend, my child is still breathing." A little later he said, "Hurry, my friend, my child is still warm."

When they got to the hospital, the young girl was gone. Then the reporter learned that she was not the daughter of the distraught man.  Amazed, he looked at the grieving man and said, "I thought she was YOUR child."

The man replied, "No, but aren't they all our children?"

Steven J. Goodier tells this story and then says, “I think that is one of the great questions of our age. Aren’t they all our children? It is a question that deserves an answer.

“Aren't they all our children? Those on our side of the border as well as those on the other side? Those of our nation no more or less than those of another?  Aren’t they all our children? Those who worship like us and those who worship differently? Those who look like us and those who do not? Aren’t they all our children?  The well-fed and the under-fed? Those who are secure and those who are at risk?

“Aren’t they all our children? Aren’t they all our responsibility? Ours to nurture? Ours to protect? Ours to love? Aren’t they all our children? If we say yes, can we ever again pit them against each other?”

 "If we have no peace," said Mother Teresa, "it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”  Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and don’t keep them away.  To such children belongs the kingdom of heaven.”