There are some things in history that should stop us in our tracks.

In the Roman world, unwanted newborns were sometimes abandoned. The practice was called infant exposure. A child might be left outside because the family was poor, the father refused to accept the child, or the baby was considered unwanted.

Some exposed children were found and raised by others. Some were taken into slavery or prostitution. Many were simply left to die from hunger, cold, animals, or the weather.

We should be careful not to claim more than history proves. Not every Roman approved of the practice. Not every abandoned child died. Disability was not the only reason children were exposed.

But the terrible truth remains. Children who should have been protected were discarded.

A newborn child had no voice, no defense, and no power. Someone else decided whether that child was worth keeping.

The Roman world often measured people by status, strength, usefulness, and the family into which they were born.

Christians carried a different truth into that world, a truth God had already revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures.

“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

Human worth does not begin with what a person can do. It begins with the God who created that person.

A healthy child is made in God’s image.

A weak child is made in God’s image.

A disabled child is made in God’s image.

A poor child is made in God’s image.

A child rejected by people is still a life created by God.

The early Christians did more than talk about this truth. They condemned the exposure of infants and cared for children who had no one to protect them.

In the second century, Justin Martyr wrote that Christians had learned not to expose newborn children. He warned that abandoned boys and girls were often taken and used for terrible purposes.

Christians understood that protecting the helpless was part of living out their faith.

James wrote:

“Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:27)

James pointed believers toward people in need.

Widows.

Orphans.

The forgotten.

The vulnerable.

The people who could give nothing in return.

Jesus also welcomed those others overlooked. He touched lepers, showed compassion to the sick, and received children when His own disciples tried to send them away.

“But Jesus said, ‘Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’” (Matthew 19:14)

The disciples saw an interruption. Jesus saw children who were worth receiving and blessing.

That is where the gospel turns this lesson toward us.

None of us came to Christ because we were strong, useful, or worthy of salvation. We came as sinners who could not rescue ourselves.

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

God did not save us because we had something valuable to offer Him. Salvation is an act of grace toward the undeserving.

The Christians who cared for abandoned children understood grace. They had been shown mercy, so they showed mercy. They had been loved when they were undeserving, so they loved people who could give them nothing in return.

Imagine finding an abandoned infant in the ancient world.

Taking that child home would cost something. There would be another mouth to feed, another body to clothe, and another life to protect. There might be no praise and no reward from society.

But love picked up the child others had left behind.

That kind of love showed the world what Christians believed.

Our culture may look different, but it still measures people by appearance, success, wealth, intelligence, strength, and ability.

The elderly can be forgotten.

The disabled can be overlooked.

The poor can be ignored.

The lonely can remain unseen.

The unborn can be treated as unwanted.

The question is not whether we would have rescued a child in ancient Rome.

The question is whether we recognize the value of the people God places before us today.

Do we see a burden, or do we see someone created in God’s image?

Do we ask what that person can do for us, or do we ask how we can show that person the love of Christ?

The children abandoned in the Roman world could offer nothing. They could not repay anyone. They could not even ask to be rescued.

Yet Christians cared because helpless lives still mattered to God.

Two thousand years later, they still do.