Child in a Box

Conservatory Orchid, Ginter Botanical Garden, Richmond, VA

Sin will be rampant everywhere,

and the love of most will grow cold.

Matthew 24:12

Phoenix, Arizona in July is a very hot location.  105-115 degrees during the day, 100 degrees still during the night.  My one ambition as a child during July was to have fun and stay cool.  That meant playing inside the house or in the shade of the yard, spending a good deal of time in the baby pool, and eating popsicles or drinking iced beverages.  Occasionally I was guilty of sneaking in the house for an extra popsicle.  I knew that I might be reprimanded, or perhaps put in time out – but never in my wildest dreams would I have expected to die because I took a treat without asking.

This past July, a little girl named Ame – who lived with a pair of distant cousins (age 23), her paternal aunt and guardian (age 44), and her maternal grandmother (age 62) – decided to sneak an extra popsicle from the freezer.  As punishment, the 10 year-old girl was forced to do jumping jacks for an hour outside in the blazing sun.  Somehow that penalty for her actions wasn’t quite enough for the sadistic family members who were supposed to love and care for her.  She was taken outside, stuffed into a plastic container resembling a small foot locker, padlocked in, and left there.  Some time during the evening/night, she died of suffocation. 

Twenty-three year old's are not known for their wisdom or longsuffering patience, and distant cousins may not feel strong familial ties.  But a middle-age aunt and senior citizen grandmother?  The cousins were charged with first degree murder because they were the hands-on perpetrators of the crime.  But the aunt and the grandmother made no effort to stop the tragedy.  For me, theirs is the greater guilt.  The other family members who knew that this child was being abused are equally culpable.

Matthew 24 chronicles the events that lead up to the second coming of Christ.  Wars, earthquakes, famines, tragedies of every stripe. Many will turn a way from the faith and betray and hate each other, wickedness will increase, and the “…love of most will grow cold.”   A spokesman from Childhelp stated: “It is really important as a community that we are aware of people around us and we look for signs and we stand up for those children who don’t have a voice.”  Amen and amen.