Today as I have been posting daft photos and being busy preparing for Christmas events, news has unfolded of tragedy across the Atlantic. Sometimes I think we forget that whilst the events recorded in the gospels were unfolding, the rest of the world carried on as normal, life and death, tragedy and triumph...
A couple of things have come to mind, firstly the Jeremiah quoted by Matthew after the slaughter of the innocents
This is what the LORD says: "A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more."
And this song, of which this is the least annoying recording I can find...
Comfort your people, Lord
Parents whose children have been slaughtered
Children orphaned by human inhumanity
Comfort your people, Lord
And forgive us our complicity in injustice
And our impotence in the face of evil
Comfort us
And give us new hope
Amen
Four of our flock gather round the infant Jesus from our nativity set...