Woe Unto Us: A Lament

Children magical and joyful

Reflections of their parents’ deepest desires

Their own little images reflecting

The glory of the maker of heaven and earth.

Across the globe, children created in the images of their parents

And the Lord of heaven and earth

Objects of war and victims of greed and

Broken humanity and its terror toward one another.

Magic in the garden one day and

Images of gasps for breath the next.

Whose children are they and to whom do they belong

If not to their parents and their country and the world

Then to whom?

In this world you’ll have trouble but

Be encouraged for I have overcome the world

Are the words of the risen Lord.

The world is troubled and we are troubled

And our troubles boil over and trouble others who are troubled.

So we drop another bomb on the ones responsible

But they knew it was coming.

The world is all inflamed even more so than before.

Who is to blame and who is to be the defender of the

Fatherless and the children and the widows.

Children. Dead children. Pictures horrify and offend.

Casualties of war. Leaders poisoning their own.

Children left on the shores of our country unable

To cross over into peace and opportunity.

Who cares for those kids and who will care for the deceased and who

Will care for their parents.

And when will wars end and who will end them

And how many soldiers will have to die and how

Many families will suffer losses unspeakable.

When will bombs create peace.

When will explosions bring about harmony.

When will war stop war.

When will death stop death.

The irony is unspeakable.

The contradictions have no words.

The joys for those parents and grandparents,

And the unspeakable grief for those.

Where is the justice and righteousness its kin?

Where is anguish of those children and our own?

Those children matter so let’s start a war.

These children matter, and who will fight for them?

I am a father. I am a grandfather.

I have a family. My sons have families.

Someday my sons’ children will have families.

What of them. Do their lives matter.

Whose lives matter and whose lives don’t.

Who gets to decide.

Who will send the next bomb?

Who will unleash the next gas bomb.

Whose children and grandchildren will suffocate.

Whose children and grandchildren will thrive.

Who gets to decide?

Woe unto us who care not for the children.