Abba, Father. The cry out of a nightmare

These haunting images of Aylan, a young Syrian refugee have been appearing everywhere on Facebook and in the media.

They sum up every mother’s worst nightmare and they wrench at my heart; we are living through a nightmare.  This was Aylan’s nightmare as he drowned, and it is my nightmare as I feel powerless to help and assist.  I can only cry out to God.

These words by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams are all I can pray today:

The Cry to God as ‘Father’ in the New Testament

is not a calm acknowledgement of a universal truth about

God’s abstract fatherhood.

It is the Child’s cry out of a nightmare.

It is the cry of outrage, fear, shrinking away,

when faced with the horror of the ‘world’,

yet not simply or exclusively protest, but trust as well.

‘Abba Father’

all things are possible to thee….