Today I saw a 2-year-old charging along the pavement in his pyjamas, waddling with his big (presumably full) nappy slowing him down. No adult in sight. I stopped the car to see what could be done when our little friends who live on the same estate piped up from the back seat: "Oh, that's Alfie. he's 2. His brother's 3. They're always running around here on their own".
I pray that we might see people with these depressing, pretty inhuman lifestyles come to know the Lord Jesus and be rescued from hell to heaven. Because in the light of eternity, if you've had no upbringing to speak of, every disadvantage, and you can't control your own life or your family, this is OK if God is rescuing you for eternity. There are many battles to be fought along the way, but it's possible to drag yourself out of this, with God's help, when you know where you're heading. Those of us with quite nice lives maybe don't see the contrast between this life and the next so clearly (although we should).
I kind of think what the first missionaries saw when they brought the message of the gospel to inhospitable Great Britain at the time of the Roman Empire. By all accounts people were living like animals in many parts of the country, a hunter-gatherer lifestyle (incidentally, why do people glorify this hunter-gatherer thing? It must have been a thoroughly miserable existence..!). And yet the gospel penetrated society, over generations. So think about this and don't be discouraged. The gospel can change the hardest of hearts and the worst of societies (or quasi-societies). Our battle is small compared to what people have faced at various points in history.
