We
pray for children who put chocolate fingers everywhere, who like to be tickled,
who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants, 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 in which 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
sleep with the dog and bury goldfish, who hug us in a hurry and forget their
lunch money, who cover themselves with Band-aids and sing off key, who squeeze toothpaste
all over the sink, who slurp their soup.
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 any-
body'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 their food, who like ghost stories, who
shove dirty clothes un- der the bed and never rinse out the tub, who love
visits from the tooth fairy, who don't like to be kissed in front of the school
bus, who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone...
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 and 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 will grab the hand of anyone kind enough to
offer it.
Hear
our cries, Adonai, and listen to our prayers. Amen.
- Ina J. Hughs
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