Lamentations 2:8-15
8 The LORD determined to lay in ruins
the wall of daughter Zion;
he stretched the line;
he did not withhold his hand from destroying;
he caused rampart and wall to lament;
they languish together.
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;
he has ruined and broken her bars;
her king and princes are among the nations;
guidance is no more,
and her prophets obtain
no vision from the LORD.
10 The elders of daughter Zion
sit on the ground in silence;
they have thrown dust on their heads
and put on sackcloth;
the young girls of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes are spent with weeping;
my stomach churns;
my bile is poured out on the ground
because of the destruction of my people,
because infants and babes faint
in the streets of the city.
12 They cry to their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
on their mothers’ bosom.
13 What can I say for you, to what compare you,
O daughter Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter Zion?
For vast as the sea is your ruin;
who can heal you?
14 Your prophets have seen for you
false and deceptive visions;
they have not exposed your iniquity
to restore your fortunes,
but have seen oracles for you
that are false and misleading.
15 All who pass along the way
clap their hands at you;
they hiss and wag their heads
at daughter Jerusalem;
“Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,
the joy of all the earth?
God of Grace and Mercy, I come today into this time of prayer tired, sad, disoriented, and hurting. I resonate with the words of the passage that say my eyes are spent with weeping. Sometimes the darkness around me feels like it’s closing in and I wonder if I’ll be overcome. And then I remember that you hear this prayer before I can even pray it. You are as close as my next breath and there is nothing that I might face that is greater than you. And just for this moment, I can breathe again. I will still need to cry, but I’ll cry knowing you are right there with me. Thank you. Amen.
Written by Rev. Michelle Scott-Huffman (she/her), Campus Minister
Ekklesia at Missouri State University in Springfield, MO.
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