Learning from the Innocent

Today was a very sad day for me. My dear neighbor, Melissa, and her husband David, lost their eighteen year old Downs Syndrome son. Her loveable Andrew, who was hardly sick a day in his young life, contracted pneumonia right after Christmas. He had spent the last 2-3 weeks in ICU at a local hospital. My husband and I made it a priority to pray for Andrew’s recovery and for strength for his parents through this trying ordeal. We led our church to pray as well and kept them informed through mass emails about Andrew’s condition. Several times it looked like things were improving and he was making real progress. Excitement would mount for everyone and we would thank God for the progress. We always believed that God could heal Andrew for we knew that nothing is too hard for our Almighty God!

As Andrew’s lungs began to weaken from infections, antibiotics, tracheotomy surgery and everything that goes with trying to sustain life in a heavily sedated body, the nagging thought of whether he could make it through the physical trauma, seemed to take up residence in the back of our minds. We prayed for a miracle for Dave and Melissa’s Andrew. We prayed, because we knew that God can do anything He wants to do!

Alas….God saw fit to take Andrew from us tonight. As I stood in that hospital room and saw the anguish of heart in his loving parents and his dear sister and brother, my heart broke for them. How blessed they have been to have had this dear boy in their lives and how empty their life will be without him! It is true that God does not make mistakes…but somehow, from a human standpoint….this heart wrenching moment almost felt like it had to be a big mistake.

The question I mulled over in my mind all the way home from the hospital was this: Since we know that God makes no mistakes, why does it seem that He often takes an innocent life to teach the rest of us so many profound things about ourselves?

What had this innocent, loving boy ever done to anyone to have to go through this suffering? If we were to weigh the attitudes and behavior of the rest of us on a scale, and the outcome would determine whether we had to face a physical punishment of some kind, no doubt---we would all be found guilty! We would be deserving for certain. Yet, here was a Downs Syndrome boy, loving life and people, eager to please, full of
affection, not a mean bone in his body and yet he was the one going through the hard time. It just didn’t seem fair… What had he ever done to hurt anybody? Why should he be the one taken?

Then I remembered once again…the Son of God. The Innocent One. What had He ever done to deserve the treatment that He had to endure?

Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Oh, what love!

When an innocent one goes through something they don’t deserve to go through, it has a humbling effect on the rest of us. We are the ones that should suffer…not an innocent one. It was love for sinners that put Christ on the cross. It was love for sinful wretches like you and I that caused Him to say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do…” Luke 23:34

The life of an innocent one always shines the light on our own wickedness. Who am I that The Innocent One should give Himself for a sinner like me! I’m thankful for the lessons I learned from an innocent one.