THE LAST RIVER MILE

“God’s heart breaks for every child, on every side.” – from The Deaconess Community

Two years ago yesterday Hamas militants launched a vicious attack into Israeli settlements. I listened yesterday to podcasts featuring two fathers. One was an Israeli taken hostage, who was released and returned home only to find that his children had been slaughtered in the assault. The other was a Palestinian man, whose only daughter has been killed in a recent Israeli rocket attack into Gaza.

As in any conflict, there are voices claiming that God is fully on one side or the other in the midst of the killing. To me, one of the worst of human blasphemies is to make presumptions about which flag God has chosen to wave when the guns are firing. Even in wars in which it may seem obvious to us which outcome God would favor (World War II, for example), it remains dangerous to declare, “God is completely on OUR side!”

This is not just because God is not reducible to any particular political position. More than that, God has declared which “side” he is on, regardless of what any of us decide about God. “God is close to the brokenhearted…” (Psalm 13:18.) God sides with both grieving fathers noted about, and with all who are the “acceptable collateral damage” of warfare. God is a father to the fatherless and a defender of widows. (Psalm 68:5.) God chooses to side with all who have loved ones ripped from them because of designs of any who claim they have chosen the righteous path. God is with those who are deemed the least valuable of humanity in the eyes of international politics (Matthew 28:40), even as they may be little more than a blip on a newsfeed for those of us who happen to be in safety and comfort.

If I claim to follow Jesus, I forfeit the right to say that God is on my “side” to the exclusion of others. God is on the side of every human being drawing breath, especially those who are treated as expendable…especially innocent, suffering children.

I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.