Every child matters

Every child matters, including all indigenous and immigrant children from Africa, Asia, Europe, N/S America, and Australia. In human history, most childhood mortalities were due to diseases, abuses, and wars, and the rate has been declining since the year 1900.

My grandmother gave birth to twelve children, and she told me that only six of them survive to adulthood, lost one during the war, and the rest passed away due to diseases before reaching adulthood. In the old days, I guess there were no official burial ceremonies and graves for children. Each child’s memorial monument was buried in my grandmother’s heart. She used to repeatedly count and tell me the story of every child she had given birth to. Then she commented, “Nowadays people are so fortunate that most babies and children were able to survive and live to adulthood.”

When I was in primary school, I heard stories about English children worked as chimney sweepers and coal miners as they were physically slim and small enough for the jobs. Probably many died from the working conditions.

When I was in secondary school, I heard stories about the Second World War: The Holocaust and The Nanjing Massacre, involving many named and unnamed victimized children. When I was attending a Christian boarding school, I met two Metis/Indigenous classmates. The two girls stayed very close together most of the time. They were quiet, and somehow there was a rumor that they were daughters of a native chief or some tribe’s leaders. Thank God that the teachers and house mistresses at the school were nice and kind.

When I was in college, I heard about genocide stories happening around the world, and local stories about indigenous residential schools. I started contemplating the topic of colonialism by comparing colonialism in the east and in N/C/S America. Colonializations in the east were places like Hong Kong (1841-1997), Singapore (1819-1963), India (1858-1947)…etc. The colonializations in N/C/S America were places like Canada, US. Mexico, Brazil, Argentina…etc. The British colonialization in the east was more-or-less being able to live out the concept of “commonwealth” by establishing education, economy, science and technology, medicine, and Christianity from various denominations focusing on Jesus, while allowing the original people to reserve local languages and cultures. However, the consequences of colonializations in N/C/S America seem drastically different from the east. Nowadays, many Canadian universities offer Indigenous studies; hopefully, indigenous people can move along together with all nations. Further investigations have not been finalized, and social comments about the matter were deduced by presumptions. May God bless all who are living out what stated in  Matthew 5:39, Luke 6:27-31.

In general, manmade culture in every nation is incomplete in various ways, we really need to deeply reflect, based on His Kingdom culture, to repent and reconcile.