This is a similar post to the one before about the Disney tragedy. It's by Matt Walsh who is a blogger for Outreach Speakers. Here are some excerpts:
It's one of the ghastliest, most gut-wrenching and devastating news stories I've ever heard in my life. A two-year-old boy at a Disney resort lake was grabbed by an alligator and dragged into the water. His father, standing right beside him when the attack occurred, tried to wrestle the child free but was no match for the eight-foot beast. They recovered the boy's body on Wednesday.
As a parent of kids right around that age, it's impossible to refrain from picturing myself in that situation. But it's too awful to even imagine. It's worse than my worst parenting nightmare. All I can do-all any of us can do-is pray for the poor mother and father who will have to live the rest of their lives somehow coping with the gaping hole left by their child's death, and the unspeakable horror of the incident forever branded on their souls.
There is nothing more to be said. But, unfortunately, that never stops people from saying more.
It could have been me screaming in agony as I realize that it was hopeless and my boy would surely die.
It's not my parenting talent that has spared my son that fate. It is merely circumstance. And you never know when circumstances will turn against you. That's the thought, more than anything, that keeps a parent up at night.
That's why we can't rush to condemn parents when some terrible accident befalls a child. Well, it's one reason. The first reason is basic human decency I referenced earlier, which, as we've established, is severely lacking in our culture. But anyone who retains even a shred of it should realize that the loss of a child is already, quite literally, the worst thing that can happen to a human being...
Most parents would not hesitate to give up their lives or undergo any physical trauma for the sake of protecting their children. That father did not hesitate to rush into the water and tussle with a giant alligator. If he'd been successful, perhaps the alligator would have attacked him next. And I have no doubt he would have preferred to suffer that painful and agonizing death instead of his son. If he could go back and stand in his son's place, he would. That is what it means to love a child...He would give up his life to have his child back. Do you think he needs you to inform him that it would have been best if this whole situation were avoided?
Does any parent need that? I remember reading a story a while ago about a father who accidentally backed over his son in the driveway and killed him. I remember arguing with people who insisted that the dad should go to jail as punishment. These were, as you would expect, non-parents. They don't understand the love a parent has for his child, so they cannot possibly even begin to comprehend the devastation a parent feels in losing a child. Punished? He buried his son. He's already been given a sentence more severe than death...
The world is overflowing-practically bursting at the seams-with things that can hurt or kill a child. On a spiritual level, it is filled with forces that can do even worse than that. And until you've had kids, you don't understand what it means to live with that burden and responsibility. You also don't understand how truly impossible it is to insulate your offspring from all these threats or how an unanticipated threat can present itself suddenly and virtually out of thin air. Your kid is always one second away from disaster-only a breath away from catastrophe-and you don't understand that until you've lived it.
There are moments when you look away, when you're not there, when you misjudge something, you miscalculate, you make a mistake. And tragedy can always visit you in those moments. If it doesn't, it's because you're lucky. If it does, it's because you're not.
For parents who are not lucky, all they deserve is prayer and compassion. If you give them anything else, it reveals your own profound ignorance. Or maybe it reveals something even worse.
No comments:
Post a Comment