Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
WEDNESDAY, December 28 Holy Innocents
Matthew 2:13-18. When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.
One day I casually admired a silver cross worn by an adult student in one of my college English classes. She related that it had been left on her doorstep the day after her two sons died in a fire. She says that she has worn it constantly ever since.
In subsequent conversations with her, I have come to admire this woman and her enduring faith. She “gets it” in a way I am not sure I would be able to do, were even one of my children to perish. She understands that her boys, as she calls them, have gone ahead into eternity and that she will, with patience, catch up to them. For now, she works and studies—lives, loves, and learns. Like the Holy Innocents we remember today, her children died too soon. It’s a cruel injustice that challenges our deepest beliefs. I hope that the mothers of Bethlehem, like my student, found strength in their faith and had loving family and friends to grieve with them.
PRAY for the Diocese of Zaki-Biam (Nigeria)
Ps 124; Jeremiah 31:15-17; Revelation 21:1-7
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Lord, we ask for patience, love and kindness as we deal with our children from day today. Amen!