So Sad

I'm sure you've seen this in the news--an 8 year old boy walking home from day camp in Brooklyn was murdered.  Alledgedly he ran into this man outside a dentist office and asked him for help.  I can not imagine what that little boys parents are going through.  The little boy begged them to let him walk home alone.  They rehearsed the route and agreed to it if they met half way.  Despite this, he got lost, and he never got home.  I keep thinking about them waiting for him to show up for the meeting.  I'm sure they started looking for him but when there are so many blocks, so many wrong turns--where do you start?  In retrospect they deeply regret that decision but can not go back to correct their fatal mistake.

I think about my little, soon to be 8 year old boy.  There are people out there who are sick and would take advantage of a child in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I hope that we are teaching him to make the right choices.  I hope that we are teaching him how to make the right decision.  In our homes, they are protected.  In our homes, they are loved.  In our homes, we don't have to worry about the people that will hurt our son.  Yet, we must let them venture.  We must let them experience the ways of the world.  They will be hurt and they will make the wrong choice sometimes.  It makes me sick to my stomache that those parents made a decision that their son was ready--he wasn't and it cost him and them with his life.  How can we know?  How can we protect them at every turn?

If I could talk to his parents, I would tell them, "How could you know?"  God be with you.