This time of year depictions of the Baby Jesus in a manger are everywhere as a commercial cue, an object of worship, as a depiction of the essence of innocence. That biblical diorama with the Christ Child at the radiant center, surrounded by Joseph and Mary, then the three wise men with the shepherds on the periphery, represents a concentric circle of care so many of our world’s children suffer for the lack of.
From the killing fields of Gaza to the shooting galleries that can be any American elementary school, dead children are seen as justifiable collateral casualties to a worthy military objective or hapless incidental victims of a society that worships guns.
