Finding Elizabeth Smart alive is a genuine miracle
Miracles can happen. Sometimes when it seems there is no hope, there can still be a glimmer of light, even in the darkest night.
So it was with the return of Elizabeth Smart to her family, after nine long months of captivity by a bizarre drifter known as Emmanuel.
Elizabeth’s ray of light came in the form of her 10-year-old sister, who finally put together who it might have been who abducted her sister from her own bedroom in the dead of night.
At first, people didn’t pay her much heed, but she persevered, and finally, after four months, the information led to the return of her sister and the capture of her abductor.
One of the most important things to any parent is the safety of their children. We try to make sure they are protected at all times, even though they may be out of our sight for much of the day. Whether in school, or at day care, or with a baby-sitter, we try to make responsible decisions as to who cares for our children, and, thankfully, most of us never have to endure the horror and loss that Elizabeth’s parents went through.
While it is inconceivable to most of us that someone would want to harm a child, the reality is there are some in this society, and in any society, who don’t hold life sacred – even the life of a child.
Even though they still held hope, Elizabeth’s parents still had to live through the nightmare that their child might have been harmed, and even that they might have lost her forever.
One of the most precious things to any society is its children. Dealing with the loss of a child is one of the hardest things any parent can go through.
Losing a child to illness or accident is painful enough, but dealing with the fact that one’s child has been subjected to deliberate harm is almost unbearable.
No one wants to consider a child’s suffering, and while the world has made great strides in the welfare of its children, much suffering still goes on, much to our shame.
Children suffer from starvation and disease, the ravages of war, abuse of all kinds, and children in many societies still basically have no rights legally, leaving them to the mercy of the state should their parents or family fall prey to some repressive regime.
All of this must have seemed very far away to Elizabeth’s family, living in the “great society,” safe and secure in their clean and secure urban enclave. They must have thought none of this could touch them, and well they should. This country makes every effort to ensure that safety.
But it did touch them. However unthinkable, their child was taken. In the dead of night. From their own home. From her own bedroom. In sight of her traumatized younger sister.
How much more personal could it get? Recently in our own state, a teenager in LaVergne was abducted from her home and sexually assaulted.
It can happen to any of us, and though we try to put it out of our minds, we all know it’s a reality. The reality of living among other human beings, good or evil, and in many cases, unable to discern the difference.
The man who abducted Elizabeth had worked for her family, and undoubtedly made his decision to take her at that point.
And the scary thing is, there was no way Elizabeth’s parents could have known of his intentions or his hidden personality. Many of these kinds of predators are very careful to conceal their true nature, and have become very adept at it.
But even though the horror of child abduction goes on every day, even in the most sophisticated society on earth, every now and then a higher power looks down on us and brings about a miracle, and a child is returned to her family’s loving arms.
Such was the case with Elizabeth Smart.
And we thank God for each of those miracles.