By Dave Grishaw-Jones
June 2014
God of the children, the Sunni children, the Sufi children,
the Catholic children, the Bedouin children,
the Shiite children, the Jewish children,
the Druze children, the Greek Orthodox children,
the Arab Israeli children, the Kurdish children,
the Turkish children, the Armenian children,
the Ukrainian children, the Russian children:
Let us look tonight deep into the eyes of the children,
the little ones we read to, the sweet ones we bathe,
the curious ones we tuck into bed with prayers;
and let us see in their eyes all the others:
the eyes of other mothers and other fathers,
the dreams of other teachers and other priests,
the yearning of other friends and other lovers,
the decency of human being and human caring and human hoping.
For all these children, the puzzling children we know,
the strange children we can only seek to understand,
the children of our neighbors and those of our enemies,
we pray with beating, breaking, believing hearts.
God of the children, open our eyes,
our hearts, our words, our dreams,
our choices, our prayers, our hours
to peace.
And may our lives reflect our prayers
in a thousand different ways.
Amen and amen.
