Gracious God,
Christmas is a time when we reflect on how God identified with humanity through the birth of a baby. Here in the vulnerability of childhood we experience love and acceptance in an unprecedented way and understand something of how we can find hope in the most difficult of circumstances.
On the weekend children in Connecticut had their young lives taken from them even as they prepared for the excitement of Christmas; and as we think of this event we seek your comfort.
This Advent week, families, communities and a nation are grieving, and we grieve with them.
Lord, may we open our hearts in love for those in Connecticut, as well as those in Syria and Afghanistan and so many other places where people suffer at the hands of violence. Help us to learn from these experiences that we may hear the heartbeat of suffering and reach out in grace and comfort.
Lord, may we also hear the murmurings of violence that occur in our own hearts, and hands and words, and while the results may not be as dramatic as those we read about in our online news streams, we know that the suffering can be just as deep.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
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