"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2:4 ESV

There was a photo taken in the 1970s by bicycle trekkers in Nigeria that showed just how indifferent human beings can be to one another. The picture perfectly captured what had happened to a man who was struck and killed on a highway.

Most of us remember the 1930s murder mystery re-runs that always showed a chalk outline that marked where the body of the victim was before being removed by the police. The image in the Nigeria picture was quite similar, only that the solid dark outline was that of the actual body of a man who had been repeatedly run over, thousands of times, by daily traffic.

It was not uncommon for a man to leave his family for an extended period to work away from home to earn a living, and that was probably the case with the dead man. His body had become absolutely flat and cardboard thin from so many drivers who chose to run over it rather than stopping and doing something about the body.

Undoubtedly no one ever did anything and his body continued to be ground into dust, bit by bit, until it finally blew away as dust in the wind.

I think there is a lessons here for us: that having this type of disregard for human life is not the way of true believers, but it is the way of the world, and the ways of the world will continue to dominate most thinking as long as indifference continues to stand where love and caring once stood.

Let us pray that eyes and minds are opened to the true value of life, anytime and anywhere that life is bought, sold or considered to be of little value.

Rik Charbonneaux is a retired NE Iowan who loves all of God's Word and all of His creatures.