The Massacre of the Innocents

I regularly receive the Mill Hill Missionaries newsletter via email, and this morning was surprised to see a photo of one of the posters on the Separation Wall near Bethlehem, and remembered the church at Ein Karem we visited with the painting of the massacre which moved me so much (see below).   

This is the image from the MHM newsletter:

How DO parents explain the separation wall to their children ?   And if a wall is eventually built between the US and Mexico, then how to explain that to little children, be they American or Mexican ?  

This is the wall painting which shocked me so much when I saw it... the two children about to be killed are the age of my two (local) grandchildren, M and R.  

The 'massacre' is explained in Matthews gospel:  "Herod, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise men, was 'exceeding wroth' (I love the King James version !) ... and ordered that all children in Bethlehem and around, from two years old and under, were slaughtered."

*   *   *   *   * 

When I think of what adults can do to children ....the many ways in which they can ill-treat them, neglect them, abuse them; well, that's the reason I support HATW and have worked with them for about ten years now.  

*   *   *   *   * 

Coming out of the Church of the Visitation at Ein Karem, this was the peaceful view