The Hidden Ache
© 2002 Don Rogers
I thought it was important to get to know the boys and girls in the 5th-6th grade class I was teaching at church. I took the time to let them talk about whatever was on their minds - and it seemed to be just sort of this and that. Good kids. Chatter.
That Sunday we were doing that kind of talk before we got to the lesson. I turned to Brian and asked him what was up in his life?
The talk stopped pretty much dead still when he said he was being sent away to a children's home. I didn't even think when I asked why? He said it was because his oldest brother beats him and his mother. I was stunned and had no idea what to say.
After class I talked to him and he said I could come visit his home. I did and found that his mother had divorced his father because of physical abuse and now could do nothing but have others take charge of the children.
Brian was sent to a home. We wrote back and forth some - I and the class. I have a deep ache in my heart. I didn't know Brian. Maybe I couldn't have known Brian. I wonder if we were any help at all in our happy-go-lucky class chatter and feeble attempts to show him we cared when we learned what his life had been like. I have an ache in my heart.