O God of All Children

O God of all the children of Somalia, Sarajevo,
South Africa and South Carolina
Of Albania, Alabama, Bosnia, and Boston,
Of Cracow and Cairo, Chicago and Croatia,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.

O God of Black and Brown and White and Albino children
and those all mixed together,
Of children who are rich and poor and in between,
Of children who speak English and Spanish and Russian and Hmong
and languages our ears cannot discern,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.

O God of the child prodigy and the child prostitute,
of the child of rapture and the child of rape,
Of runaway or thrown -away children who struggle
every day without parent or place or friend or future,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.

O God of children who can walk and talk and hear
and see and sing and dance and jump and
play and of children who wish they could but can't,
Of children who are loved and unloved, wanted and unwanted,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.

O God of beggar, beaten, abused, neglected,
homeless, AIDS, drug, and hunger-ravaged children,
Of children who are emotionally and physically and mentally fragile,
and of children who rebel and ridicule, torment and taunt,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.

O God of children of destiny and of despair, of war
and of peace,
Of disfigured, diseased, and dying children,
Of children without hope and of children with hope
to spare and to share,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.

from
GUIDE MY FEET
Prayers and Meditations on
Loving and Working for Children
by Marian Wright Edelman