We’ve been praying for the media’s tone and rhetoric around the ‘migrant’ crisis to change for weeks now, but this week’s shift has been so painful to watch. Because it’s come at such a cost. Our hearts have been heavy with the value of every life fleeing danger as Jesus voiced so beautifully in Matthew 10:29-31. This prayer is our response to the pictures that have dominated our screens over the last few days.
When one small sparrow falls to the ground,
You know and you mourn.
How much more so when it is a child?
When one small sparrow struggles to make or find a nest,
You see and you mourn.
How much more so when it is a child?
But we cannot be like You.
There is so much we do not know,
and so much we do not see.
And we choose not to be like You.
We prefer to look away from some
and we decide not to mourn others.
Give us hearts like Yours –
so we stop missing the point
that every one is a child of infinite value to You.
When one sparrow-child falls and is rightly seen,
the media change their tone and the politicians their course
and we thank you for this turning point mercy coming out of trauma.
But none of us are like You.
And we fear a return to pragmatism and protectionism,
and a string of qualifications and limitations and ‘migrant’ rhetoric
will triumph again over the personal story times 50 million
and the pure truth that no child of yours is two a penny,
or less important than a quota, or another’s comfort – or even our own.
So give us hearts like Yours –
so we never again miss the point
that every one is a child of infinite value to You.
More prayers that you might find helpful in the context of this week include:
– those in our blog post from a few weeks back Prayers for the strangers at Calais… and for us
– our prayer inspired by Psalm 126 for refugees
– the song Come Prince of Peace
– the new addition – a pivotal prayer for peace – to our collection of written prayers for peace to come to conflict situations.