My heart hurt when I read in Sunday's Pittsburgh Tribune Review that a 15-year-old girl and her 14-year-old boyfriend buried the body of their stillborn baby in a bag in the ground behind an apartment house. This happened in April 2007. The remains were discovered more than a year later (June 2008). These two kids were "charged as juveniles with concealing the death of a child, abuse of a corpse and conspiracy." Not only that, the man who discovered the body and other "neighbors" found the discovery very disturbing.
What's the deal? Why did my heart hurt? Why were these two charged with breaking laws? Why are neighbors upset? Well, I don't know precise answers for the last two questins but I do know why my heart hurt. It hurts for kids who have to grow up too quickly in a world they don't understand and probably don't have God's truth to guide their lives. They were afraid. They didn't even tell their parents or a trusted teacher. In their fear they acted to hide their shame and guilt.
These young teens live thousands of years away from the Garden of Eden but not so far from the actions of Adam and Eve who also felt shame and guilt and tried to hide. God gave Adam and Eve the answer for their guilt and shame when He sacrificed a lamb and made them fur and leather coats.(Gen. 3) God promised on that terrible day in Eden that one day He would send a Savior. God made good on that promise over 2,000 years ago (the day Jesus died on a cross outside Jerusalem)! Ever since Eden when God had to banish Adam and Eve from the beautiful garden, God has been in the business of restoration - one heart at a time!
Jesus calls us to be salt in a world gone badly wrong and light to push back darkness (Matt. 5:13-16). When we faithfully do so, God does His restoration thing in one heart after another! Then God's Kingdom starts to be on earth the same as it is in heaven in one heart after another!
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