Reaching for my splattered dishes,
an image catches the corner of my eye– a small girl face down on a concrete floor
Her tiny hand underneath her head serving as a pillow
Clank, clatter, clink- I load my dishwasher –
the sounds of my routine day mingling with this horror.
Scrolling my news feed, I am arrested by a photo of a disheveled boy.
His face reveals a vacancy that is far more alarming
than if it were contorted in a howl of anguish.
He has lost the belief that his cries will be heard.
I fire off two quick emails to my senators
to register my complaint on his behalf.
Driving around in my air conditioned car,
I hear radio pundits debating terms like “detention centers” and
“concentration camps.”
I wonder at the heat index near McAllen Texas today,
and listen to reports of toddlers left unbathed for weeks on end.
I make a mental note to begin a fundraiser to help with this crisis of humanity.
Kneading flour into bread, I am reminded of the privilege
of never going hungry.
I recall a news story account of daily meals consisting of
a frozen burrito, a cookie and some Koolaid packets
I knead faster, more furiously practically assaulting the
flour, yeast, and water whose only crime
is to be in my presence at this moment.
Bile rises in my throat. I am angry. I. Am. Furious.
It is at times like this that I wish I still believed in a God of vengeance
For if there were truly a literal hell, there are plenty of people I would gladly send there.
My list is long and I would show no mercy.
It is best that I do not have this power,
lest I would strangle more than this terrified dough.
But God will be merciful to even such as these-
misguided persecutors and the unwitting dullards who cheer them on
all while children suffer, starve, and die for the crime of nothing more
than the color of their skin, and the land that they have come from.
Standing in my kitchen, I am like Jonah-
angry that the Lord God will be merciful
even to such as the wicked people of Nineveh.
But His Heart is with the children.
His compassion is for them.
His mercy is theirs.
I close my eyes and pray
“God forgive us all.”