010120 – Matthew 2.13-23
The statistics that I am using are ten years old…but they were the latest complete figures that could be found.
I am sure we are doing MUCH BETTER TODAY, NOT much better at all!
We say that our children are OUR FUTURE, that they are so VERY, very important. And yet, the numbers DO NOT BEAR that out…
TODAY, around 21,000 children died around the world…just TODAY!
Some 21,000 children die EVERY DAY around the world…and Rachel cries.
That is EQUIVALENT to:
1 child dying every 4 SECONDS.
14 children dying every MINUTE.
A 2011 Libya conflict-scale death toll every day.
A 2010 Haiti earthquake occurring every 10 days.
A 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring every 11 days.
An Iraqi-scale death toll every 19–46 days.
Just under 7.6 million children dying EVERY YEAR.
Some 92 MILLION children DYING between 2000 and 2010 and again Rachel weeps.
The “silent killers” are POVERTY, HUNGER, easily PREVENTABLE DISEASES and ILLNESSES, and other related causes. Despite the scale of this daily/ongoing catastrophe, it rarely manages to achieve, much less sustain, “prime-time, HEADLINE COVERAGE.”
And the world wonders why Rachel WEEPS and REFUSES to be CONSOLED. How many Rachel’s are there around the world WHO quite literally lose their children every single day.
The world is full of “INCONSOLABLE RACHEL’S…”
Some more numbers on the STATE of our world’s children…
From UNICEF, the world’s “premier children’s organization,” part of the United Nations:
2.5 billion people lack access to improved SANITATION.
1 billion children are deprived of one or more services essential to SURVIVAL and DEVELOPMENT.
148 million under 5’s in developing regions are UNDERWEIGHT for their age.
101 million children are not attending PRIMARY SCHOOL, with more girls than boys missing out…
22 million infants ARE NOT protected from diseases by ROUTINE IMMUNIZATION.
7.6 million children worldwide DIED before their 5th birthday in 2010. 4 million newborns worldwide are DYING in THE FIRST MONTH OF LIFE. 2 million children under 15 are LIVING with HIV.
The numbers are MORE THAN STAGGERING.
UNFORTUNATELY, it seems that THE WORLD still DOES NOT “notice.” It might be reasonable to expect that DEATH and TRAGEDY on this scale should be PRIME TIME headlines news. YET, these issues only surface when there are global meetings or concerts (such as the various G8 summits or WE ARE THE WORLD concerts.)
Furthermore, year after year, WE WITNESS that when those campaigns end and the meetings conclude, so does the MAINSTREAM MEDIA COVERAGE.
There is NO GLOBAL OUTCRY, only silence, even the cries of the Rachel’s of this world CANNOT be heard…
The Top 10 countries with the most “under the age of 5” deaths in the year 2000 were:
India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, China, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Sudan and Uganda.
And NO, abortion numbers ARE NOT figured into these numbers… so the worldwide numbers go MUCH higher.
There was “the threat of death and destruction” of the baby JESUS…and his parents did the ONLY THING they could do to SAVE his life…they FLED…they became REFUGEES, they became FOREIGNERS in hitherto unknown foreign lands. They sought precious ASYLUM.
…Of all places for them to go…back to the land that had ENSLAVED their people for hundreds and hundreds of years…
But what you probably DO NOT know and DO NOT realize is that – NOT ALL THE JEWS left Egypt with Moses in the great mass-migration. Many stayed behind, they were business owners and well-established – not every JEW was enslaved!
So IN EGYPT, were THEIR people, who spoke THEIR language and practiced THEIR religious beliefs. THERE was a COMMUNITY already present that could offer “safety and security and a sense of home and JEWISH culture.”
They would be safe there, among their own kind. They would be welcomed…and THIS CHILD would have a chance at LIFE. Amen.