Crying child.

Last night was hard for me. I live in a block of flats and in one of the houses at a nearby flat there was a little child crying. At first I thought I was dreaming because the cries seemed so far off but in and out of sleep I could hear the cries. They were pathetic cries. The child kept calling out to the mother. Must have been a three to four year old. This went on for a while and at some point I stirred fully awake and realised that I was not dreaming.

I wonder how many other parents heard the cries of this child too. I could not bring myself to go on sleeping while this child went on crying. No matter that my own kids were safe and warm in their beds. And so 3am found me standing on my balcony trying to figure out what to do seeing as it is not safe to go out at that time. I was quite surprised that no one else even ventured out to try take a peek from their balconies. Yet I am very sure that had it been a fighting couple causing all the commotion many would have been out trying to catch the action firsthand. But for the crying child, noone.

A society's future is in the hands of the children. We should all be concerned about the children because they are the future of the nation. Children should be the concern of all whether we know them or not. Because you can tell the direction of a society by the way they treat their young. In this case we have failed miserably. God must be looking down on us and wondering just why we allow young children to go through so much trouble. The excuses are many though.

Any one should be moved by the cry of a child in distress. A child stands for innocence and thus it does not matter our disparities when one requires our attention. We should all be able to put our guards down and go to the aid of one such. We live in a society thus need to reach out to one another when they need us. When each one of us realises that no one is an island then we shall be on the right track. This might mean getting out of a warm bed to try and find out what is happening next door. Or telling off unbecoming behaviour in the right way.

When our kids see us reaching out to each other they grow up knowing that they too have a social responsibility to fulfil. They will then not hesitate to step in to a situation that calls for their attention. The current situation whereby it is everyone for themselves is not good. No matter how self reliant we are we all need one another. It is a need God put in the human heart to reach out to others because unlike the animals we are social beings. And so the sooner we all quit acting like we do not need each other the better for us all. Given, some may view this as trespassing but I believe what matters is how we approach the issue at hand.
Standing at my balcony that ungodly hour made me realise how much can be changed if we all made a little effort. I was lucky to speak to the child's guardian as they got out of their gate minutes later on their way to the hospital. While I may not understand why it took them so long to make the move at least I was able to go back to bed for the remaining hour before dawn knowing well that the situation had been resolved. With that were thoughts of the what kind of a society is ideal for us.

We can all make a difference. It is amazing how awkward one looks in this city when they extend a greeting to a stranger. No one seems to believe that a total stranger can just call out a greeting as they go by. One such is viewed with suspicion and often met with a steely stare. We all need to warm up to each other and opt to see the good in those around us not the bad. It is by building bridges to one another in all the small and big ways that we exemplify the true meaning of love. After all, the greatest of them all is love.