This is slightly off the point but I remember going to a local church service, I was not a member or a regular attendee(tsk tsk) so very few people knew me. I had taken Luke with and had dropped him off at the Sunday school. As the service ended I popped to the ladies loos and was overcome with an appalling thought. What if some guy went to the Sunday school, posed as Luke's dad and took him. No-one would be none the wiser, they would let my baby go with him! Never have I yanked my knickers up faster than that day. I think I may have even shoved an old lady (ever so slightly) out the way to go collect my boy before someone else did. It could happen so easily, even in a church.
It must be a mother's deep natural instinct to comfort her child, to make sure she attends to his most basic needs, to protect him, to defend and fight for him. Watch any National Geographic doccie, those animal mamas are fierce! Nothing is too much to ensure those babies' safety. (I am proudly a Leo Lioness)
But what if you are separated from your little one? You have no way of knowing if he is alright. Another example is the all too many news reports of missing children snatched from their homes. What can a parent do, besides enlisting the police services and the local community's help. And praying non-stop 24/7 while trying not to go out of your mind. I can't comprehend what those families are going through. I don't want to. And that imagination would be just out of control. That's probably the worst thing. Imagining.
Back to NZ. What would drive my hysteria even more would be imagining my child equally terrified about what's going on about him, sensing the fear and confusion, and crying for a comforting pair of arms, preferably Mama's. And I'm not there to reassure him. That could make one just a bit crazy. One can only imagine the many families frantic attempts to reach each other or get information on each other's well being. And the relief of having arms flung round your neck, of having found each other, hopefully relatively unscathed. Just knowing your family is safe can get you through some of the darkest most awful moments.
May God be with those trapped and hurt, afraid and scared, those whose imaginations are driving them crazy, those who are missing, and those who are searching. May He answer the many prayers and enjoy the ecstatic laughter of anxiously awaited reunions.
