Studies show that nearly 19 million children in the United States are growing up with only one parent, and that over one fourth of these single parents wrestle with poverty. The children are at great physical, emotional, mental and spiritual risk. During their adolescent years, they are especially vulnerable to hunger, abuse, emotional trauma, accidents, medical problems and criminal offenses.
Love in any circumstance is a risk, but loving and caring for a tender child whose entire life has been consumed with merely surviving requires a commitment to that love. In addition to everything else, at-risk children often must deal with rejection by caring adults who cannot commit long-term to the struggle of loving them.
Awhile back I had a conversation with the staff of Father’s Love, a ministry that works with children from low-income, single-parent homes. They said that they have a prayer box where the kids can put in anonymous prayer requests, and the two most common topics in those requests are neglect and abuse. These precious children have been victims for most of their lives but have never had anyone to talk to. When they are able to share their brokenness to get it out into the light and air, they can take the first steps toward healing. Those who counsel them are often the first people to have allowed them to speak about their trauma. It is also, for many, the only time anyone has ever shared God’s love with them.
Jesus had fierce words for those who would harm a child. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:5-7, ESV). A lot of millstones in Jesus’s day were as big as a car and weighed hundreds of pounds. His warning was clear: Don’t harm the children.
Most important, Jesus paved the way to unflinching love. He saw neglected and abused children too, and he embraced them tenaciously. Our Lord never gave up on anyone, especially those who had been rejected. “You must be there for them,” he tells us. “You may be their only connection to me, to hope and a better life. Don’t break that connection. Love them in full commitment and without reserve.”