For children detained at border stations
July 29, 2014

Note: I am hesitant to post this prayer for two reasons: 1) my inability to help, and 2) awareness of strong disagreement. If you disagree, please ignore or voice a different prayer. Let God hear all of our voices.

Oh Lord, who will love the children?

Who will muster the courage to say,
        “Let the little children come to me.”
Who will act out their life’s mission
        to be the hands and feet of Jesus?
Stepping toward children in need,
        reaching out to hold and comfort.
Who will overlook legal status –
        a line in the sand, a human category –
to look at these boys and girls, little children,
        teens and tweens, only youths,
and see them as your children,
        those made in your image?

Oh Lord, who will love these children?

Lord, we cannot deny the legal issues that
        these children raise on this side of the border.
But nor can we deny the social conditions,
        these children face on the other side of the line.
Desperation greater than the risk of travel,
        hopelessness worse than the risk of death.

Dear God, what are they running from?

Maybe if we could help solve those problems,
   things would be different.
But until then…

Who will see the stranger and orphan,
        as you see the sojourner,
one longing for life outside of Egypt,
        the land where they are citizens,
        with few rights, chattel for trade.
A sojourner longing for a promised land,
        a land of hope and opportunity.
The same reasons our ancestors made
        the same journey to a land not their own.
Oh Lord, how quickly we forget.

The witness of scripture teaches
        we are all resident aliens,
        passing through your land.
The witness of history tells us this land
        belonged to others before us –
        those we pushed out at gunpoint.
Oh Lord, how quickly we forget.

Lord, it is strange how much
        these children frighten us;
with languages we do not know,
        customs that are not our own.
A demand on our tax dollars –
        already stretched thin by
        social programs
        and wars.
A threat upon our jobs,
        a drain on our schools.

But who will love these children?
        What message will we send to them?
Will it be the message of the world,
        that refuses to give up what is mine?
Or the message of a man who had no home,
        who taught us about self-sacrifice for others?

Oh Lord, who will love these children?

Please, Lord, bless every gift,
        every cup of water,
        every visit,
        every ounce of food,
        every effort made in your name.

Please Lord, will you love these children?

Amen

Limited permission is granted for reuse of this prayer in worship or other venues. If printed in any form attribution must be given as "Glenn Pemberton, mosaicsite.org/glennpemberton." Special permission is required to print three or more of these prayers at one time in any form, print, electronic, etc., and must be secured by request at gdp05b@acu.edu.