What If It Was Your Child Poem by joy olree

I saw a child yesterday sitting on a corner, tears
streaming down its face, and I stopped to ask
why and the child replied, “no one likes me,
they laugh at me and say I lie, but I don’t lie.”

I walk away after leaving a hug and some words
of encouragement, but as I walked home I said,
“thank God it was not my child.”

Today thousands starved to death because they
had no food. Some ones little girl, some ones
son, but my child ate well.

I turned off the television news and I said, “thank
God it was not my child.”

Every day it seems there is more tragedy, more
horrors, children dying, abused and killed, and it
seems nothing is done to change these things, but
my child is safe, warm and fed.

So when I go to sleep at night I pray and say,
“thank God it was not my child.”

This morning someone screamed at my child and
when I in anger started to reply I thought of Jesus on
the cross, his father watching as he suffered and died
at the hands of the very ones he came to save and I
walked away and prayed, “thank God it was not my
child.”

So my friends the next time you are upset over some
wrong you feel has been done to your child, think of
all the wrongs in the world and should you feel the
need for revenge remember, Jesus could have called
all the angels in Heaven for help but instead he cried,
“father forgive them they know not what they do.”

And God said, ” what if it was your child? ”