Messengers in Goose Down
I’m crying right now after listening to this NPR report on the Juarez, Mexico youth groups that go out dressed up as angels to protest the murders in their town.
If angels are those who bear the good news to people on earth, THIS might be the most heart-stopping announcement of that news I’ve heard outside of the Bible.
If you listen to the whole story, you’ll notice that these are real life teenagers. (The youth pastor loudly and matter-of-factly telling the kids to get moving and move quickly could have been any youth pastor herding a youth group to an activity.) As a recently-resigned youth pastor, I’m struck and astonished by the power of what youth are capable of, but particularly convicted, by these young people, of what we ought to be pushing our youth to do as witnesses. What if American teenagers started witnessing to the news of peace in the places around us where there is no peace? What if we were willing to take even a tiny bit of the risk these kids are taking on ourselves, and to allow our own teens to take on some of that risk as well?
(If I were still pastoring youth right now, I’d be planning a Bible study and discussion based on this news report for Epiphany, about being a witness and bringing light to the places that need it.)