Protection from abuse

[Chrysostom]

You plead for Christ to protect your son from abuse, and rightly so, for what mother's heart does not cry out when violence threatens her child? But let us press deeper into the very consolation of the Gospel. Was not the Son of God Himself delivered into wicked hands, not merely struck or reviled, but slain? He took flesh precisely to enter our full calamity, to endure the worst that evil can inflict, so that no suffering of yours or your son's could ever be meaningless or beyond His healing. He was born of a woman, that you might be born of the Spirit; He abased Himself utterly, that He might exalt you and your son even from the pit of affliction. When you pray for protection, do not doubt His power or His intimate care. Remember the marriage feast He honors? This was the eternal Son, equal to the Father in all things, the one in whom the Father is well pleased, and yet He did not cling to His dignity. He came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many, even for enemies. If He gave Himself for those who despised Him, how much more will He shield a little one whose mother cries to Him?

But what is the shield you must seek for your son, and indeed for yourself, in these trials? Not an end of every temporal threat, though we pray earnestly for that, but the shield of a soul formed aright. You take thought for his safety, but take even greater thought for his soul. The child entrusted to you is a greater possession than any estate, and if his soul is grounded in the fear of the Lord, he will suffer no ultimate harm from poverty, from blows, or from the malice of men. Make his soul your first care. Lead him in the way of holy living, for a right faith without good works is naked and defenseless, a ship whose planks will not hold in the storm. Teach him that Christ is the Light that lightens every person who comes into the world, and that this Light no abuser can extinguish, for He said, "He who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live." Even if your son's body is harmed, his life is hidden with Christ. The death of the body is a sleep for those who trust in Him; they shall never truly die.

I hear the storm of anger rising in your soul against those who harm him, and it is natural. Yet what pardon shall we deserve if we become infuriated, if we nurse our enemies as villains in our hearts with reviling and abuse? Let not your prayer be spoiled by a root of bitterness, for Christ intercedes even for the violent, giving His mother into the disciple's care and showing us to honor what is weak and wounded. Imitate Him. Commend your son continually to the protection of the faithful, and train your own heart to pray even for those who act wickedly, that they might be stopped not only by divine power but by divine conversion. This is the hard path, but it is the path of the Cross. Build your son's soul and your own little by little, as a wise builder waits for the mortar to set. Do not seek to swallow all counsel at once, but add virtue steadily: patience, forgiveness, steadfast prayer. In doing so, you will see that the true Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness shall not overcome it. Stand as a mother unbroken, because you serve the One who is the Resurrection and the Life.

 

[Silas]

The prayer you have cried out is the cry of a parent's heart, and it does not fall on deaf ears. When you ask the Lord Jesus to intervene and protect your son from harm, you are echoing a deep, biblical truth about the relationship between a father and his son. Think of how David, even when his son Absalom was in open rebellion and seeking his life, still commanded his captains, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man." His chief concern, even in the midst of betrayal, was for the safety of his son. How much more does your heavenly Father, who knows how to give good gifts to His children, care for your son right now?

The scriptures give us a profound picture in Abraham, who was called to take his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loved. This foreshadowed the heart of the Father, who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son for us. God the Father understands the bond you have with your son perfectly, because He willingly endured the severing of that bond with His own Son to make you His adopted child. Because you are a son, He has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart, crying out, "Abba, Father." Cry out to Him now with that same Spirit-given confidence.

When fear rises and the danger seems overwhelming, remember whose son your child ultimately is. Jesus Christ is the Son of God declared with power, the one to whom the Father said, "Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased." And it is this same Son who reveals the Father to us. No one knows the Son but the Father, and no one knows the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. You can trust Christ to be your son’s true advocate and shield, because all judgment and all authority have been committed to Him.

Do not read this trial as a sign that God is distant. The Scripture says, "My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord." While this is not necessarily a direct punishment, it is a reminder that God deals with us as sons. The very fact that you can call out to Him is the proof of His fatherly care. He chastens every son whom He receives. Your love for your son is a reflection, however imperfect, of a perfect love that will not let him go. The enemy may seek to harm, but Jesus has already overcome the world. Rest in the truth that the One who did not withhold His only Son from us will certainly not abandon your son to destruction. Continue to bring him before the throne, and trust the Son of God to be his refuge and his deliverer.

 

[Jonathan_M]

I prayed for this request in Jesus Name.