Prayer for the Children

God of the waiting, we know that if we slow down, you will speak to us.

So today, we wait for you,

we breathe for you,

we feel your spirit,

and we pray:

We pray for our world, and specifically, our nation. We bless this land upon which we stand, grateful for the blessing we have been given to live in freedom. Yet we know that freedoms can be so easily taken, so we ask you, our liberation God:

free the oppressed,

listen to the cries of your children who live in poverty,

incarcerated,

without their mother and fathers.

Comfort those that mourn.

We pray for our leaders, that they might be guided in wisdom and love to make the right choices for the soul of this nation.

God, you are a God of no borders. Your love has no bounds. You speak to those who will listen and to those who humble themselves enough to be able to receive your loving embrace.

May your love not build walls but break down barriers.

May your love shatter misconceptions, open minds, and liberate the children from bondage.

That from the chains we have put upon them, they will break free and become the kind of people you have called them to be:

Liberators. Lightning bearers. Warriors of Truth. Beacons of Peace.

For the sun burns away injustice and its light leads us from the darkness.

But most importantly, God, we ask for you to soften our hearts so we hear your call.

For we know it begins with us. So when we cry out:

“God, where are you? Why have you left us in our greatest time of need?”

We remember how you answered us:

“Child, I did not forsake you. For I created you.”

As your creations, your hands and feet, let us go out and change this world to reflect your image. A God whose name is love.

Amen.

Photo by Laura Watson Byrd, taken at a refugee respite center in San Benito, Texas. This Guatemalan refugee was learning the states of America in his English class.