Lightning

by Beatrice Reeves
(Lloydminster, sask)

The little child looked up, a sudden blast of lightning hit his face so hard, and painful that he screamed in terror, as it nearly tore his head to the other side of his body. That blast of lightning was his fathers hand as it came crashing down across his little face. "Nathan" was five years old and he feared his father, as these were regular beatings. His mother had left him and he was all alone and brokenhearted that his mommy was gone. He blamed himself for daddy hitting him, because mommy had left. His frail little body cringed in pain and terror as his father now grabbed him and threw him on his bed. "You do not talk to the neighbors," he snarled. "Now, you go without supper." Nathan sobbed himself to sleep, only to get up the next day to face this nightmare once again. One day the next door neighbor noticed his face and hands. She talked to the kindergarten teacher about how he looked that morning. They took him into a room and asked him some questions: "Does daddy punish you?" and "Show us the marks." This child was starving for love and attention, so like any small child was glad to talk and "show and tell", as the teacher called it that day. They took him to the doctor, and the neighbor called the authorities on this man. Little Nathan was removed from the home that very day and is now living happily with his mother who had heard of the beatings from her neighbor. These things happen to children on a daily basis. God gave us children as gifts not to be destroyed. This world is overcome with the bashing of children, and it has to be stopped.