Mourn With Those Who Mourn...

(image: https://infotel.ca/newsitem/pair-of-shoes-for-each-of-the-215-children-discovered-buried-at-former-kamloops-residential-school/it83367)

This morning I am still trying to process the tragedy unveiled in the discovery of a mass grave of 215 children at the site of a residential school in Kamloops, BC. I am shell-shocked. I am overwhelmed. I am in grief. Romans 12:15 ends: "...mourn with those who mourn." Ever since I heard the news, I am in mourning.

On one hand, it feels strange to mourn something that happened to people I don't know, at some point in the past.

At the same time, the news is fresh, so the loss is fresh. These children's deaths had no closure; their families and friends had no closure. So now, we mourn.

I am, once again, deeply saddened by atrocities that have happened under the name of two things that I treasure deeply - being a Christian, and being Canadian.

The name of both has been deeply tarnished by those who betrayed what I believe that Canadians and Christians should stand for: love, kindness, sharing, treating others with respect, freedom and caring for one another and working together.

That's what Jesus stood for; that is what I stand for.

For the hurt done under the name "Christian" and "Canadian", I am so very deeply sorry. I am ashamed of those who went have caused the horrible neglect, abuse and devastation to these families. I am also angry and wrestling with how to respond.

But, today I mourn with those who mourn.

And as I mourn, I pray, because I believe in a God of hope and healing.

I pray for an end to all forms of prejudice and hatred.

I pray that He will change the hearts of the apathetic, the arrogant, and the angry especially when it's mine.

I pray in hope that God will restore broken relationships between our nations.

I pray that He will heal the hearts of the hurting.

I pray that He will make us all more like Jesus.