Sophia. Escapes. Car.

I have loved this child from the day she was born. Maybe loved her a little more because around the age of three months we found her in our care. Sophia is precocious, adventurous and just plain fun! So it is not surprising to recall what she did during one of our Army Combat Medic training sessions.

As was custom, when MSG Zollinger (Grandpa Mike) needed victims for training, he used some of his many grandchildren. It was convenient because they came in all shapes and sizes and loved to get "bloodied up" and play injured. On this occasion, Sophia (around two and a half years old) was a passenger in a van that had "collided". Her job was to just sit in her car seat and wait to be treated by a soldier/student. She had not been really given much in the way of obvious injuries. What unfolded somewhat haunts me to this day, in more ways than one.

The soldiers did a great job of triage (assessing injuries and treating according to need) and immediately assessed that Sophia wasn't in any need of immediate care. Quite simply, they moved on to more serious matters and ignored her. After a few moments, Sophia got out of the car seat, climbed out of the van, literally walking though legs, and walked away!

I got the MSG's attention and motioned, "Did you see that"? He confirmed that he's seen with the nod of his head. Sophia continued past the commotion and around the building...out of sight! Not one person had noticed her leave the scene of the accident! What if it had happened in a real situation? What, if during her escape, she had been injured by a passing car? What if someone stole her from the scene? What if...what if?

It was sometime later that I thought about that day and was struck by those events in a spiritual sense. How many of our children live day to day doing all the right things; there are no major accidents in their lives i.e. drugs, alcohol, etc. In the meantime our efforts are poured into a wayward child? And maybe, because we aren't watching, a child slips away from the "scene" to end up who knows where. Maybe they will wander through the crowd to safety, but maybe they will get hit by that car because no one noticed they'd walked into danger.

It was a lesson to me that day that "spiritual triage" is a necessary thing. Certainly, we need to put much effort into family members who are struggling but we must never lose sight of the ONE who doesn't need our care at the moment.

Thank you Sophia, for that lesson!