Pictures float across my screen . . . Xavier . . . Jose . . . Nevaeh . . . Tess . . . Alexandria . . . Jacklyn . . . Jayce . . . Miranda . . . each a precious child, carrying the hopes and dreams of those who loved them. Each a little child lost in the onslaught of our gun rights wars, that pits the lives of children against the profits of gun makers.

I was at our Denomination’s Annual Conference when first word of the school shooting in Uvalde Texas came.  Our bishop paused to pray. We prayed for the wounded, safety for the children, comfort for the grieving.

By now, everything that can be said, has already been said. Refrains from other shootings. We rinse and repeat our words.  Every.   Time.   We grow more entrenched in our positions. Meanwhile, bodies pile up. In a grocery store in Buffalo New York, a Taiwanese church in California, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde Texas. Bodies pile up and there is grief, upon grief, upon grief, while bodies continue to pile up.

Jesus said, ‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:6

Pictures flash across my screen . . . Makenna . . . Lyla . . . Maite . . . Annabell . . . Jailah . . . Amerie . . . Each a precious child of God.

And I do pray. I pray comfort for families broken by gun violence. I pray for God to break through entrenched positions in Congress,  State Houses, and the Supreme Court. I pray for a day soon to come, when children will not be slaughtered in our schools, elders in our grocery stores or worshipers in houses of Faith.

Pictures still flash . . . Uziyah . . . Eliahana . . .Lexi . . . Rojelio . . Alithia . . . teachers Irma and Eva.

“Comfort, O comfort my people,
    says your God.” Isaiah 40:1