As long as your heart is beating, as long as there is breath in your lungs, you are a child of God walking upon this earth.

Reach up to place your fingers against your neck. Feel the pulse there, tapping out its rhythm, steady and strong. “Child of God,” it beats out against your fingers. “Child of God.”

Place your hand on your chest, feeling the expansion of your lungs as you breathe in deeply, as your chest deflates with each exhale. This gift of God, the constant in-and-out, life-giving movement. “Beloved,” the quiet rush of air whispers. “Child of God.”

Beloved. Child of God.
That is who we are.
All of us.
All.

And yet.

Although the same inheritance of love is for each person with pulse beneath their skin and breath between their ribs, our world does not agree.

For those whose flesh is of a darker hue the experience of our world is made more pFor those whose flesh is of a darker hue the experience of our world is made more painful, more dangerous, more tenuous simply because of their melanin-rich skin.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength,” Jesus said, “and love your neighbor as yourself.”

How God’s heart must break
to see his beloved children
doing such harm
to his beloved children.

So stop.
Stop.

Just stop.

Stop, and reach up to place your fingers, lovingly, gently against their neck. Feel the pulse there, tapping out its rhythm, steady and strong.

“This is a child of God,”
it beats out against your fingers.
“Child of God.”

Place your hand upon their chest, feeling the expansion of their lungs as they breathe in deeply, as their chest deflates with each exhale. This gift of God, the constant in-and-out, life-giving movement.

“Beloved,”
the quiet rush of air whispers.
“Child of God.”

Beloved children of God, for whom Jesus came to earth to walk with us, pulse beating with his heart’s rhythm, breath moving through his lungs. Beloved children of God for whom Jesus taught and healed and loved and died. Beloved children of God for whom Jesus came back to life to break the chains of our bondage to sin and evil. Beloved children of God for whom the Holy Spirit was given, the breath of life.

Beloved children of God:
STOP.

Stop breaking God’s heart
by hurting
children
beloved of God.

Just stop.

And
then
together
perhaps
we can breathe.