Requiem for Joy

Children are children all over the world
They share the same big sky of blue

RT @ChannelNewsAsia *JUST IN* Shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut, USA: police

The earth is like God's egg. He sits on it and protects it.

Francisco and Martita
El Salvador/Romania
Keren
Gerson
We sat across each other at IHOP years after you were gone.
Holding hands.
Crying.
Praying.
Too soon.


They share the same sun and the wind and the rain
The moon, and the same stars as you

RT @ChannelNewsAsia Children among dead in #newtown shooting in Connecticut, US

And then there are earthquakes and volcanoes.

Sieg and Sanna
Hannover, Germany
Amy
I don't remember your name.
But I slept in your room on your bed after you were gone.
And watched your parents and sister quietly grieve.
Too soon.


They find games to play, just like you, everyday
They have birthdays and holidays, too

RT @ChannelNewsAsia Up to 27 killed in #SandyHookElementary school shooting in #Newtown #Connecticut, 18 dead are children. Gunman in 20s

There was the one in Japan two years ago.
I was 7, and I cried and cried hoping it wouldn't get to New Zealand.
I wasn't ready to die yet.
- Stella Maaka-McCrea, 9

Todd and Steph
Auckland, New Zealand
I don't know half the story.
Only that it happened
Too soon.


Did you ever think children all over the world
Are just little children like you?

RT ‏@nzherald "Our hearts are broken today ... for the families of those who are lost." @BarackObama

Today we're lighting a candle for faith. Does anyone know what faith means?

"Faith is like believing in something that we cannot see." - Esther McNickle, 7

How are we supposed to light tomorrow's candle for joy?

I think of sweet Essendon at school.
She's not bossy, just a little angry sometimes.
Always ready to protect.

I think of kind Jesse at church.
I told you last week I would help you put up the decorations.
Always ready to  help.

I shudder at what it would be like to lose them.
Or to walk with them through an episode of innocence lost.

And then Jen reminds me...

this is my father's world.
oh, let me never forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
god is the ruler yet.

So we light a candle anyway.

Hope, Faith and one for the
children in Connecticut and around the world

We sit in darkness and grapple with what it means to make room for joy even when we're not ready for it to come.

"For darkness will not overcome the light."

"There is no way to God except through human frailty ... Only when we encounter God in our deepest, darkest places do we have something to offer the world" - Jim McInnes, Te Atatu Bible Chapel

Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison
O Come Emmanuel