26,000 Today

There is a new hit in the bloggy world named Dan. He quit his job to start a blog called "Single Dad Laughing". And while some of his posts are pretty hysterical - Dan also can get into some deep posts that make you really think. Like yesterday's post regarding the Holocaust murders. Startling. Humbling. And def. worth the read.

But as I was scrolling through the images, I couldn't help but think about the other images that we never see.

In Richard Stearns' book "The Hole in Our Gospel" (if you are a Christian, or an atheist, you pick; you really need to read this book) - he speaks of the pandemonium that would ensue if we were to wake up to the headlines "One Hundred Jetliners Crash, Killing 26,500". Think about the implications -- airports shut down, non-stop media coverage, world-wide task forces to investigate the causes. We would hear about who had died, and the memorials to the victims, young and old. And that's just in one day. What if we woke up the next morning to the same news? We would think the world must surely be coming to an end.

ONE DAY = 26,000 DEAD.
TIME WOULD STAND STILL.

To compare visually, I found a photo of the recent Arizona memorial service at the University of Arizona in which the President spoke. You can't even see the entire arena but it is a huge crowd of 26,000 come to mourn the shooting victims.
Now image that that arena were full of children. With toothless grins, skinned knees, wide eyes. Imagine your little boy or girl in the front seat - smiling and waving. Surrounded by your nieces and nephews. Their whole elementary school.

That image is how many children die every day from preventable causes. The number of deaths per day. And not number of people who die from AIDS.... number of people killed by cigarette smoking... but the number of children, just children, who die from preventable causes - every day.

Because of malnutrition. Diarrhea. Poor water. Basic childhood illnesses.

Today.
Tomorrow.
And again the next day.
And the next.

And yet, what have you read in the news about it? Where are the memorial services? Where are the documentaries? Where is the outrage?

People love to point out the bad in the world. How 'bout the good? Be the change. Pick one child to start with. One child that you will take out of that arena. One child that you will provide vaccines, healthy food, preventative medicines, and clean water. An education. The saving grace of Jesus Christ. Just one.

But it's a start. One may just be a number, but to that child, it's a pretty important one.