Saturday Ramblins, Extra (November 7, 1998)
Another child is missing. Another photo appears in the paper. Another smiling, innocent and trusting face smiling at her daddy's camera. Another clueless search by the authorities. We don't know this child, yet we know her intimately because she is our child. She is our hopes, our dreams, our fears for our own children.
Eight-year-old Maddie Clifton of Jacksonville, Florida, is missing. In one of her photos, she appears to be playing "dress up" wearing a leopard patterned top, lipstick smeared on her lips but the child comes through with the Tweety Bird pin on her collar. Freckles sprinkle her face and her smile reveals that one day some orthodontial work may be needed. She is my child. She is your child. Unremarkable, as children go, but the greatest miracle of all time.
Police suspect foul play, according to the news reports. Police have no clues. Police question the neighbor in who's yard the child was last seen. It's been four days. We think, we talk, we pray for her return. But in the darkest and most fearful part of our heart, we know the odds after this much time. We've read this story before, many times. Too many times. We see the parents on television pleading for their child's safe return. Our hearts break because they are us and this is our child.
I've written on this topic before in the case of Christian Lamb who was found dead after several days of searching. I've written in anger with a pen warmed up in hell (to use Mark Twain's expression). But today there is no anger, at least not on the surface. Weariness is the word. Weary of the reports of yet another missing child. Yet another terrified family.
If Maddie was indeed, as police suspect, abducted for someone's sick intentions, what do we do as a society to protect her? She is our child, afterall. How do we identify the predator before he strikes? Do we stop our children from playing? Do we stand guard over them every minute? I suspect the people of Jacksonville, Maddie's home town, are doing just that at this moment.
I don't have a specific answer but I know it lies somewhere within us as a people, as a society, who must become more God-centered from the highest levels of leadership down to our neighborhoods: a God-loving people who take an a genuine interest in the welfare of all around us as God loves us and watches over us.
Until this happens, starting with you and me, Maddie will be just another missing child. And that can't be. Maddie Clifton is my child. Maddie Clifton is your child.
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