Rachel Weeping

Yesterday’s mass shooting left me searching my feeds for some kind of collective response. But outside of the headlines, there was mostly silence. Few wanted to offer “thoughts and prayers.” Many seemed too weary from the relentless cycle of mass shootings in America. The silence itself was deafening.

I tried to pray and couldn’t find the words. What came to me instead was this Scripture:

“A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and lamenting loudly:

it was Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled,

for they were no more.”

— Matthew 2:18

That was all I could hold onto. And then a simple, desperate prayer:

God, surely you hear the outcries as we mourn for these children. How long will this go on? We are doing all we can to change this and yet we are steamrolled by this evil. Do something, God.

After that, every time I thought of the children, I cried. And I couldn’t seem to stop.

Sometimes lament is the only prayer we have. And maybe in that shared grief, even in silence, there’s a spark of resolve to keep going.