“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” — Matthew 2:18 (quoting Jeremiah 31:15)
“I watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband’s dead body on the ground,” Mary Hayes told the Associated Press reporter as she held a piece of cardboard with “No ICE Stop ICE” written on it. “I watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she’s never going to see her father again.”1
I keep thinking about the little girl with the pink backpack.
This morning, that backpack is probably sitting by a door or hanging from a hook, waiting for a school day that will never start the way it did before. Her father is gone. Her mother is now a widow. This daughter faces a grief she never asked for.
This is where I want to start. Debating immigration policy does not seem to help. So let’s focus on this child.
The Bible pays close attention to children who are caught up in the workings of powerful systems.
When Matthew tells the story of Herod’s violence, he refers back to the prophet Jeremiah from six hundred years earlier and imagines Rachel, the mother of Israel, standing by the road and weeping.
“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
She refused to be comforted.
That sentence has always made me pause. We spend much of our lives trying to comfort grief, explain it, organize it, justify it, or move past it. Rachel refuses. Sometimes, refusing comfort is the only honest response.
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, once wrote, “When you understand, you cannot help but love.” I have wondered if the opposite is true as well. When we choose not to understand, it becomes easier to hurt each other.
Empires depend on distance. Distance turns fathers into suspects, children into collateral damage, and families into case numbers. When that happens, almost anything can follow.
The gospel moves in the opposite direction. Jesus did not just see crowds. He met a widow, a blind man, a tax collector, a frightened child, and a grieving mother. He kept helping people break free from the labels that trapped them.
The little girl in Maine does not care about our arguments. She wants her father. She will feel his absence on every birthday, every first day of school, every graduation, and every ordinary Tuesday that should have included him.
Sometimes, a nation must ask not only if something is legal, but also if it has forgotten how to see.
Rachel still stands by the road, still weeping. Maybe the most faithful thing we can do today is to not rush past her, not explain away her tears, and not look away from the little pink backpack.
And, we must abolish ICE.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
Which image from today’s meditation has stayed with you? Why do you think it has such power over your imagination?
Rachel “refused to be comforted.” Are there losses in our common life that we have tried to explain away instead of grieving honestly?
How do we resist the temptation to let people become categories? What practices help you remember the humanity of those whose lives seem far removed from your own?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer For Rachel’s Grief
God of every grieving parent, Today we pray for the little girl with the pink backpack. We do not know her name, but you do. We pray for her mother, whose world has been shattered. We pray for neighbors who witnessed what no one should ever witness. Receive their grief. Hold their anger. Protect them from despair. We pray, too, for ourselves. Keep our hearts tender. Do not let us become so accustomed to violence that another family’s sorrow becomes another day’s headline. Teach us to love our neighbors not as ideas, but as people. Not as categories, but as children beloved by you. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
The Empty Chair
Tonight, before you eat dinner, leave one chair at the table empty for a few moments. Let it remind you of every family whose table is missing someone tonight.
Offer this prayer: “May every family know safety, dignity, and peace.”
Then begin your meal with gratitude for those who are present.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.
July 14, 11:00 - 12:30pm ET - Community Conversation on The Commons - Margaret Wheatley will be joining me for a conversation on how we build “islands of sanity” in a world that feels increasingly fragile. She has identified five pillars in the architecture of resilient community. For those of us wishing to form and be in healthy community with others in this time, you don’t want to miss this conversation. REGISTER HERE.
July 28 - September 1, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are reading our next book, “I Eat The Stars” by Sarah Wilson. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.
September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.
October 6, 2026 - 7-8:30pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - Matthew Fox and I are teaming up again to launch a series called Journeying with the Mystics. The mystics have always emerged in times of uncertainty. They appear when old certainties are crumbling, when institutions no longer provide easy answers, and when people find themselves longing for a deeper experience of the Sacred. Join us for an 18-session exploration of the teachings of St. John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, Hildegard of Bingen, Kabir and Rumi, Meister Eckhart and more. This is more than a lecture series. It is an invitation into a living spiritual journey. REGISTRATION COMING SOON!
October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.
June 29, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.
My friends over at Spiritual Wanderlust have some of the coolest classes. One I am particularly drawn to is their Celtic Spirituality School where you get to learn from people like John Philip Newell, Ilia Delio, Carl McColman, Sharon Blackie, and more. Read more about their program.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
https://apnews.com/article/ice-shooting-maine-immigration-dhs-f26f8c2256aa6f0748582ea4adbb515c
The Little Pink Back Pack how precious. I was a little girl also when my father was killed in a coal mining accident, there is no grieve like it, ever time you see a father, even just a man you grieve for what was and could have been. In time may the memory of her father be a blessing.
Thank you! There are times and events into which no "comfort" can enter.... we all need to be radically uncomfortable, discomfitted....shaken to our core. The great temptation of this moment is to grow numb.