A child who was thrown from the third level of the Mall of America by a stranger is said to be in good condition — thank goodness — causing many Christians to call his survival a “miracle”.

It ought to go without saying at this point that the better “miracle” would have been if the child was spared from his literal near-death experience. God didn’t prevent that, though.

Pastor Mac Hammond addressed an Easter Service this past weekend, discussing an update on the boy’s progress. … “Doctors said they found no brain damage — not even any swelling,” Hammond said at the service. “No spinal damage, no nerve damage … doctors are saying it is truly a miracle.” Hammond also noted the boy had suffered some small internal injuries, including a good amount of broken bones, but none of the injuries were considered to be life-threatening. According to Hammond, a physician working closely with the boy called it a miracle, as the injuries were similar to “falling off a bicycle rather than falling from three stories.”

We can all be thankful that he’s going to pull through. At the same time, calling his survival a “miracle” feels grossly insensitive to parents whose children have died from accidents or homicide. It implies that God favored this boy but not those other ones. It also suggests that God’s Master Plan somehow involved a deranged man throwing a child from the third floor of a mall — which raises a slew of additional questions about who these Christians are worshiping/

That’s not the intention of anyone using the word, obviously. But this premeditated attempt at murder could have ended very differently, and the same people would have been unhelpfully justifying that by invoking God’s name, too. Let’s be grateful the boy is safe, hope law enforcement officials can prevent such a tragedy from happening again, and call on attorneys to bring the culprit to justice.

(Image via Shutterstock)

