In 1946, the United Nations International Children’s Fund was founded…
May we find a way to not only honor this altruistic group
but widen and deepen our care and commitment to its ideals…
Here are the words composed by Marian Wright Edelman

“O God of the children of Somalia, Sarajevo, South Africa, and South Carolina; Of Albania, Alabama, Bosnia, and Boston, Of Cracow, and Cairo, Chicago and Croatia, help us to love and respect and project them all.

O God of Black and Brown and [Red and Yellow]White and Albino children and those who are all mixed together, Of children who are rich and children who are poor and in between, Of children who speak English and Spanish and Russian and Hmong and other languages our ears cannot discern, help us to love and respect and protect them all.

O God of the child prodigy and the child prostitute, of the child of rape, Of runaway or thrown away children who struggle every day without parent or place or friend or future, help us to love and respect and protect them all.

O God of the children who can walk and talk and hear and see and dance and jump and play and of the children who wish they could but can’t Of children who are loved and unloved, wanted and unwanted, help us to love and respect and protect them all.

O God of beggar, beaten, abused, neglected, homeless, AIDS, drug and hunger-ravaged children Of children who are emotionally and physically and mentally fragile, and of children who rebel and ridicule, torment and taunt, help us to love and respect and protect them all.

O God of children of destiny and despair, of war and of peace, Of disfigured, diseased, and dying children, Of children without hope and of children with hope to spare and to share, help us to love and respect and protect them all.”

What can be said?
We can utter our dismay and anger over how desperately we as a nation, and we as a world, have fallen so tragically short…
We can be defensive about how much we have already done, and how the world is better off because of those efforts… but instead of reacting…..

Maybe, in this season of Advent, we could sing and covenant together… We could open our hearts, and inclusively reflect on the words of “What Child is this?”

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