Children in the Midst of Conflict

This is no time for a child to be born,

With the earth betrayed by war & hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out & the sun burns late.

That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honor & truth were trampled to scorn—
Yet here did the Savior make His home.

When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn—
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.

The Risk of Birth -- Madeleine L'Engle 

There are thousands of Christian paintings and sculptures and stained glass windows which portray Madonna and Child. The madonna is Mary/Miriam, the mother of the child Jesus/Yeshua. Few of those works of art allow Mary to a young Jewish woman or portray the grittiness of Jesus' birth. 

Would we dare to say that Mary was a Palestinian teen, particularly in these fraught times? And how do we take our "stained glass" story and put it in the context of events unfolding around us? 

The news that Hamas terrorists killed helpless Israeli babies in their homes is heart-rending and I cannot comprehend the barbarity, the inhumanity. Now I mourn what is happening to infants and young children in Gaza where there is no place to run and hide from Israeli bombs. What did any of these children do which would warrant their deaths? Even those who have survived have been subjected to traumatizing moments from which they may never recover. 

Somehow we need to understand that every birth is a miracle, the ordinary extraordinary. I can't believe that God's love differentiates between Israeli and Gazan children. 

This tweet from a physician working for the United Nations is stark:

Dr. Natalia Kanem /she/her/ella/ 

@Atayeshe

We at

@UNFPA

are deeply concerned for the safety and wellbeing of women and girls in Gaza, which is home to 50,000 pregnant women currently unable to access essential health services. Some 5,500 of these women are due to give birth in the coming month.

I also say "Amen" to this observation by Naomi Klein:

Naomi Klein 

@NaomiAKlein

New piece from me, written with love for everyone in grief right now. It has a simple message: "Side with the child over the gun every single time, no matter whose gun and no matter whose child." Moral consistency ≠ Moral equivalency.