Immigration is a mess, the policy debates are long and nuanced. Wherever you fall in those debates is rather irrelevant because the effects of the zero-tolerance policy are simply untenable. We are violently, traumatically breaking thousands of already-at-risk children. Read the BBC for the lasting violence this kind of trauma inflicts in children. The science is sound.

So, what can we do?

When trauma occurs, the community’s response to it can compound or mitigate the effects of the damage. Let’s mitigate.

Our hearts break, but our blood doesn’t heal. Only by the blood of Jesus.

Join me in praying over the bodies, minds, and souls of the children detained:

Holy God. You are who you say you are, even when the evil in the world seems to triumph. You welcome the little children to you and scold those who keep them away. You instruct us to become like little children in order to even enter your Kingdom. How hypocritical that we refuse, criminalize, and gravely traumatize the little children who seek to enter our eathly kingdom. King David prayed that you prepare a table for him before his enemies; but this time, Lord, I’m afraid I’m part of the group of enemies you’re preparing the table in front of. Forgive me! Have mercy on us! Forgive us, for we sin greatly and misuse the power and affluence you’ve given to us.

Holy, omniscient and loving Father. Emmanuel. You know the names and the stories of each child and parent suffering. I ask that your Holy Spirit would descend on their bodies with the peace that transcends my understanding but that I have gratefully received from you. I ask that you would send your angels among the children and parents with living shalom and manna. Rock those babies and children in your heavenly arms! Hum their favorite lullabies in their ears. Calm their heart rates, their bodies, their anxieties. Give them sweet, replenishing dreams. Appear to them as their Ultimate Father while they await reunification with their earthly caregivers. Release the cortisol in their bodies to end down the cycle of open-ended trauma memory in the appropriate moments for these children. May the symphathetic and parasympathetic branches in their brains continue to work in unison throughout this ordeal. Give them voice to their pain and suffering beyond their cognitive ability to do so. May your grace penetrate each of their hippocampus and amygdala to stymie the effects of this untenable trauma.

Please, God, in your grace and mercy, spare these children the lingering effects of PTSD. Cover them with more grace and more grace. May the blood you shed on the cross, your undefeated blood, wash over them and guard them. Let each girl and boy know that they are seen, that they are heard, and that they matter to you and to many others; that this separation is not their fault, and that this injustice will not go unpunished. Protect their bodies in all the ways we have failed to. Protect their innocence from those who seek to prey on them. I command your angels to guard each of them from the despicable hands of traffickers and abusers. Grant peace to their rest and friendship among them.

Whoever is in charge of these children and their care, whoever is feeding them and clothing them, will you ennoble their hearts and empower their hands? Will you pour your spirit of compassion onto these workers so that they may care deeply and speak and move with your love, your trauma-wisdom, your intuition that they wouldn’t otherwise have so as to mitigate the longest lasting effects of this terrible event?

Miraculously guide these parents to their children. Give the government workers insights to do this beyond what they can see. May you reunite the separated quickly! And may you rend the hearts of our country to the humility of your unfair Gospel so that we might do the right thing and honor you with our power.

May our leaders repent and seek your mercy.

I pray in the powerful name, the loving name, the name that is more furious than I am at this situation, the name of the risen, victorious Jesus who loves. Amen.

Some other things everyone else is listing that you can do:

 

 

  1. Leave furious messages on your representatives voicemails. Countable is a great app to directly contacting your representatives
    1.  Senator Ted Cruz (202-224-5922), Senator John Cornyn (202-225-3816) and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (202-224-2934) all got voicemails from me vowing that if I can’t personally hold them accountable for their use and misuse of the power given to them, th
      ​en​

      I’m sure God himself would.

  2. Protest in person.