Children of the Ash Heap

In the Roman Empire, unwanted newborns were carried to the city dump and left on mounds of ash and refuse. Romans called the practice "exposure" — a clinical word for abandonment. These infants had no names, no families, no futures. The law treated them as non-persons.

But early Christians did something the empire could not comprehend. They walked to those ash heaps before dawn and gathered crying babies into their arms. They carried them home, gave them names, nursed them, and raised them as beloved sons and daughters. Church fathers like Clement of Alexandria thundered against the Roman practice, insisting that every discarded child bore the image of God.

The prophet Hosea would have recognized that impulse. God told him to name his own children Lo-Ruhamah — "not loved" — and Lo-Ammi — "not my people." These were names of judgment spoken over a nation that had chased false gods and forgotten its covenant. Israel had become like those Roman infants — exposed, abandoned, left for dead in unfaithfulness.

But the Almighty refused to leave His people on the ash heap. In the very breath after judgment came breathtaking promise: where it was once said "You are not my people," they would be called "children of the living God." God walked into the wreckage of Israel's betrayal and gathered His people back — not because they earned it, but because His love simply would not let go.