Where is the Promise?

The Promise of Spring

If you look very closely you can see the hint of green and buds coming out on the trees.

The world is renewing itself.









Across the street the forsythia bush has opened it's yellow leaves.










And with what has happened in Texas I feel the need to re-publish this poem. I wonder where the promise of Spring is for the FLDS children who remain in custody of parents who would treat them the way the children in Texas were treated. Thankfully some of them are now being protected.

A Prayer for Children

By MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN

We pray for children
Who sneak popsicles before supper,
Who erase holes in math workbooks,
Who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those
Who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
Who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
Who never "counted potatoes,"
Who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead,
Who never go to the circus,
Who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children
Who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
Who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.
And we pray for those
Who never get dessert,
Who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
Who watch their parents watch them die,
Who can't find any bread to steal,
Who don't have any rooms to clean up,
Whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
Whose monsters are real.

We pray for children
Who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
Who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
Who like ghost stories,
Who shove dirty clothes under the bed and never rinse out the tub,
Who get visits from the tooth fairy,
Who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
Who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
Whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those
Whose nightmares come in the daytime,
Who will eat anything,
Who have never seen a dentist,
Who aren't spoiled by anybody,
Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
Who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be carried and for those who must,
For those we never give up on and for those who don't get a second chance.
For those we smother ... and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

And I pray for children who have parents who mistreat and abuse them and who are cast out because they are different.
And for those who grow up exploited by adults in the name of religion. Or who are exploited and abused by those they should be able to trust.
And I pray for those who are too blind to see the great evil that does this to God's precious little ones and would excuse it or justify it for any reason

Suffer the little Children - Don't make them suffer. Where is the promise for them?