The tragedy this week of a forgotten infant’s death in a hot car in our community grieves us all. I cannot imagine the pain this family, their friends, and others close to them must be experiencing. To lose a child by any means, at any age is grievous, but to have it occur due to one’s haste, neglect, oversight, or failure to anticipate the possibility of such an occurrence seems too great to bear.
While statistically the percentage of parents who experience such a loss, due to their own accidental and unintentional actions is small, the actual number is probably more than we realize…. infants in bed with a parent or sibling who suffocates the baby, a child who is left unattended even a brief moment and finds the way to a pool or tub, a child who is not strapped securely enough into a seat, one who tumbles off a porch or out of some opening that was unrealized…..the ways a child can come into danger are many.
Uncompassionate and accusatory words cast at people in such times only make the pain worse. Though one may find it hard to understand how such a thing can happen, we need to avoid judging and strive to be compassionate. Who among us has never had a lapse of judgement, made a mistake, or failed to anticipate a potential risk? Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone…….