Advent 2012 : Day 14

The Massacre Of The Innocents


When they came

and cut our children down

before our eyes

we realised:

this was not the

foreigner intent

on crushing us into submission;

these men were of our own,

our flesh and

blood.

It was not evil – 

in some projected-outward sense – 

that visited our quiet town

that day; it was

the dark and fearful side of

who we are.


And where was

God With US

in this? He’d slipped

across the border,

gone away,

to be among our enemies

until we turned

away from fear, humbled ourselves – 

for only then could he return.

How long, O Lord?

Deliver us from evil.

Deliver us from

US.


You can read about the massacre of the innocents in Matthew 2.