THE HEART OF A CHILD

 

The sneering faces glare at you

Inside the hearts are broken.

The pain of life will never show,

Their sorrows never spoken.

 

These children have been cast adrift,

Inside no love is flowing.

The pain of life is all they know

And bitterness is growing.

 

Can we see behind the mask,

The rejected child within,

That's trying to grow up as whole

In spite of the parents'sin?

 

What did they ever learn of love?

What is my obligation?

Is there some way I can reach out,

Will I risk humiliation?

 

They've known mostly rejection

So rejection's the way of life;

They pull it around like a shielding cloak,

I can't cut it with a knife.

 

Maybe a warming smile will help

get through to the shielded soul

That hides within the hardened heart

Wrapped in the deep black hole.

 

Maybe a warm invitation

"Come back, I like to see you"

Can somehow slip through the cracks

Where a message of care is new.

 

Maybe they will warm their hands

At the love that might repair

And get beneath protective armors,

To the hurting children there.

 

The message of a patient love

Is the only one I know

That will get through the shield of an empty heart

And cause that heart to grow.

 

April Colburn ©1/1/98

 To the world, you may just be somebody...but to somebody, you may be the world.

Richard D. Dover
In His Steps Ministries
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