When we think of little children we are often filled with warm images of children who cross our paths and whose antics we remember. They are innocent, cute, harmless, and often funny. They ask questions too deep for us to answer truthfully and credit us with knowledge we do not possess.
In this contemplative season of Lent, however, thoughts of children bring up images of horror. The earthquake devastation in Haiti is too overwhelming to imagine, and, yes, it involves injury and death to countless small helpless children. In a country as poor as Haiti, suffering existed long before that event, though perhaps off somewhere out of our conscious thoughts.
But now, and for a long time to come, the plight of little children is stage center. What does it mean to welcome them? It could literally involve opening a spare bedroom in the house, expanding our family circles to include theirs. At the very least it involves money for food, medicine, shelter and clothing. Think about that in this season of Lenten sacrifice and discover what God is asking of you when answering your prayers.
Prayer: Loving God, we know that you do not cause tragic events, although you seem to permit their occurrence in this finite world you created. We wonder why you order your creation this way, questioning whether you order it at all. Help us to overcome our cynicism with re-kindled trust, our feelings of helplessness with avenues of service, through Christ who leads us through and beyond these things. Amen
Hank Borchardt
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