350 dead. ... 1,000 dead. ... 10,000 dead in one prefecture. Trains, boats, entire villages washed away. Thousands missing. How many will have died when the counting is done? My ears hear, but my mind cannot comprehend these numbers ... In this place far away from Tennessee, in a country I do not know and may never visit, people are suffering, people are crying.
"A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation,Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more." - Matthew 2:18, NRSV
Voices are heard in Tokyo, Sendai, Kesennuma,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers,
friends and strangers weeping ...
They refused to be consoled, because they are no more. What can I say? How can I respond? These grieving, devastated people live so far away. But they are my sisters and brothers. They are children of the Most High, the God who must be weeping, too. God of Compassion, with you and all the world family, we weep and mourn. Comfort all who are alone or afraid, who wail in loud lamentation, who cry silently. Let us be your heart reaching out to those who grieve. Let us be your hands working to assist those who still live. For you are the God who stands with the least and the lost. Come by here, Lord. Come by Sendai, Minamisoma, Ichihara, and Tokyo. Come by all the places that need your comforting and healing presence. Amen.
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