Halloween was horrifying this year. It didn’t have anything to do with costumes, horror houses, or dastardly tricks. After all the candy was gone and the “trick or treaters” had retired for the evening, we heard the horrifying news. A barefoot three year old child was found crying in the street, carrying a nine day old sister. The police could not find the children’s mother and their grandfather wanted nothing to do with them.

    These cold, forgotten and neglected children were dirty, malnourished, and scared—a sad reminder of the millions of other neglected children in our world. What can we do to make a difference? Solutions are not easy! But let’s pick three beginning points for action.

    First, let’s love, cherish, and nurture our own children, grandchildren, church children, and neighborhood children. Children are precious gifts from God, but not gifts we possess. We’re merely stewards. They’re really God’s children. They come from Him. He made them and sent Jesus to remind us just how important they are. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.” If children are within the circle of our influence, they're our responsiblity. What we do for them, we do for Jesus.

    Second, let's insist on children being valued for who they are —eternal people made in the image of God. The Fall did not strip away our likeness to God—every child bears the likeness of the Heavenly Father (cf. Genesis 8:6; James 3:9). In addition, God is at work making each child special, even when the child is unseen in the womb of his or her mother (Psalm 139:13-16). God knows this unseen child and has a plan for this child’s life. To lose the gift of a child, to see it snuffed out by neglect, is to lose something precious from God himself.

    Third, let’s financially, prayerfully, and personally support groups which help vulnerable and forgotten children. These may be crisis pregnancy centers, foster care programs, children's homes, adoption agencies, crisis family centers, special poverty relief programs for families in need, and shelters against violence. We must not abandon God’s precious children to the trash heap of despair, abuse, and isolation.

    We learned as children that “red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight.” Let’s make sure they know they are pecious in our sight as well. Don’t just get angry and grieve over the neglect, join me and make an eternal difference in the life of at least one of these children whom God loves.