MINE!!

Charlie and I have five grandchildren and one soon to arrive. Two of those are 2 1/2 year old boys, so you can imagine we hear the possessive pronoun "mine" with amazing frequency. Trucks, action figures, apples, fruit snacks, and more prompt Max and Mav to loudly proclaim personal possession and dominance. They usually work it out in fairly short order, since there's plenty to go around and always parents on hand to enforce "sharing" of sorts.

One little episode started kinda cutesie and ended up disconcerting for me. Mamaw, ME, was the disputed possession. The three of us were sitting on the bed, getting ready to watch a movie together, and Max decided the view would be better from my lap. When Mav realized Max was sitting on my lap instead of beside me, suddenly I became the most popular person in Portage Lakes. They briefly debated who had prior claim to me, and it quickly descended into a preschool brawl, with shoving and pulling and smacking. Of course, I was in the middle, and took far more blows than either boy. Being fought over quickly lost any slight attraction for me. Mamaws are meant to be loved by their grandchildren, not owned by any of them. Big concept for little guys.

Apparently it's a big concept for some big people, too. Adults who are big in selfishness, sin, and perversion. Adults who say "MINE!" to 27 million plus slaves, persons just like you and me.No human being was ever intended to be owned by another. Yet there are more right now than at any other time in human history. People who live in daily agony, held hostage by the perverse desires of another. They are men, women, children. Their "owners" use them for backbreaking labor, sex trafficking, soldiering...whatever their greedy hearts desire.

Whose responsibility is it to do something about it? MINE.

Whose voice matters? MINE.

Whose whole heart is in it to end it? MINE.

SHINE A LIGHT ON SLAVERY. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2014. GET IN IT TO END IT.