THE LOSS OF A CHILD

From TODAY, Voices
Friday August 22, 2008

By Dr James Dobson

There’s a classic poem by Eugene Field called Little Boy Blue that my father used to quote to me when I was a child. Perhaps reading parts of that poem today will bring some measure of comfort to those parents who have lost a boy or girl in recent years; and it may remind others of us how precious those little lives are.

It goes like this:

“
The little toy dog is covered with dust,
but sturdy and staunch she stands.
And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
and his musket moulds in his hands.

Time was when the little toy dog was new
and the soldier was passing fair.
And that was the time that our little boy blue
kissed them and put them there.

‘Now don’t you go ‘til I come,’ he said,
‘and don’t you make any noise.’
So toddling off to his trundle bed,
he dreamt of the pretty toys.

And as he was dreaming, an angel’s song
awakened our little boy blue.
Well, the years are many and the years are long,
but the little toy friends are true.

Aye, faithful to little boy blue they stand,
each in the same old place;
awaiting the touch of a little hand
and a smile of a little face.

And they wonder as waiting the long years through
in the dust of that little chair,
‘What has become of our little boy blue?”,
since he kissed them and put them there.
”

There are some things that cannot be broken or taken away from us, and those are the memories of a child and the times that we spent together.