Look under the bed!

Baby Sammy’s story reminds me of the zillions of times my mom would say (in response to our whining about losing something), “Have you looked under the bed? Go look under the bed!” Of course I find myself echoing my mother’s words with my own children, especially Lucy, whose shoes are forever playing hide-and-seek.

Reportedly Baby Sammy was found under the bed. I have wondered how exactly that might have happened. His mother is mentally ill, had the baby at home, and then presumably stored the new baby under the bed and ran off. How was he found? I have wondered.

One idea I have had is that a neighbor was watching the pregnancy. There are still a few Good Samaritan busybodies in the world! No doubt she watched the girl grow up, noticed that she was pregnant, wondered what would happen to the baby . . . Perhaps she even asked the girl, as I did in our neighborhood one day of a different mentally ill woman, “What are your plans for the baby?” And was told, as I was, “I’m not pregnant!” And this was at eight months! I was alarmed, and this neighbor probably was, too.

Maybe this neighbor noticed that the tiny house where the expectant mother lived was quiet and empty one day. No one was outside cooking beans or washing clothes. The broken door was closed. The Good Samaritan neighbor decided to take a look.

She walked into the house and noticed a bloody, disheveled bed. The woman had her baby! But where were they? Then she heard a little cry, very weak and muffled. She moved the covers around on the bed but found nothing. Then she thought, “Look under the bed!” And there was Baby Sammy, still covered in his birth mess and now with ants as well. What a sight!

After four months in the hospital and another month with us, Sammy bears no signs of this horrible experience. He is strong and active, and his cries are no longer weak and muffled. He is a happy baby boy, fussy and with a big appetite.

I like to think that the Good Samaritan who saved Sammy is still the holy busybody of her little world, keeping an eye out for the vulnerable and needy. She wasn’t afraid to look under the bed, and as a result a precious life was saved.

We never know what we’re going to find under the bed, but the next time you are searching there, remember Baby Sammy, and ask God to give you the courage to be a Good Samaritan busybody. You might just be the one to rescue someone from sex slavery, domestic abuse or abandonment.

Each life is precious to Jesus, and we are His hands, feet and eyes.
And bless you, whoever you are: the person who found Sammy under the bed. May the Lord continue to bless you with His desire to seek and save His lost lambs.

A Long Road Home

I have a young friend (20) whom I will call Jorleny who is courageously seeking healing and transformation for her own life. After being sexually abused by her own father at age seven, she made friends who introduced her to drugs, alcohol and prostitution. For the past thirteen years she has alternately been committed to staying alive in the street culture or attempting to escape it. She has been in several different programs and ministries in Tegucigalpa, always with optimistic intentions, but each time she has ended up back on the street.

This time around Jorleny has been clean from drugs and alcohol for eight weeks, her longest time ever! She is in a Christian rehab center. Several of her friends, all of them sex workers, had been murdered, so she decided that it was time (again) to “live like normal people.” She voluntarily entered the center, and she has faithfully obeyed the schedule and rules. She is now physically clean, and she has also become reconciled with the Lord Jesus.

What’s next? Her emotional state is shattered. She struggles with depression, fears of all sorts, and traumatic memories. I asked her if she has nightmares. “Yes,” she said, “All day long.”

She wants to go back to school. She quit in fourth grade. She wants to work so that she can be somewhat independent. And most of all she wants to be the kind of person and mother that her little boy, age four, can be proud of. He is in our children’s home, and if there is any one reason for Jorleny’s tenacious resolve, he is it. She finds strength in the God she cannot see, but her hopes are pinned on that little boy.

Would you pray for Jorleny? She is looking at a very long road home, and some days she doesn’t want to try anymore. She is being healed one day at a time by the One who loves her best, and she longs to feel that she truly belongs to the Body of Christ. Let us surround her heart and spirit with our intercessions on her behalf so that she can be truly free and fully healed.