There have been several songs written through the years about love being something the world needs now more than ever, with such examples heavy on my mind lately being “Where is the Love?” by the Black-Eyed Peas and “What the World Needs Now is Love” by Dionne Warwick. In watching recent news stories regarding the atrocities that have taken place in Minnesota at the hands of ICE, I feel that the lyrics of each of these songs are something that we ought to be paying closer attention to.

The hatred and atrocities brought on by the agents from ICE have taken on many forms, from the murders of Rene Good and Alex Pretti, who were innocent citizens, to the detaining of Liam Ramos, a five year old boy and his forceful separation from his parents all the while defense is being given that the ultimatum was to leave this young, innocent child wearing a blue, rabbit-eared hat to freeze, the hatred is speaking loud and stirring up conflict to the point that it feels impossible to find any sort of hope or love in the world and makes it easy to ask the question the Black-Eyed Peas ask: “where IS the love?”

While it seems impossible to find hope and think that love covers all wrongs at the moment, and it will surely take time for it to do so in this time, as Mister Rogers once said: “When I was a boy and would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You always find people who are helping.’” I feel that in this day and age, now more than ever, it’s crucial that we follow Mister Rogers advice that we look for the helpers, or strive to be helpers, to spread that love that the world desperately needs now.

God, please wrap your loving arms around everyone affected either by the tragedies taking place in Minnesota or those who are simply shaken up seeing more bad news being a constant. But help us not to forget to look for the helpers and try to help give even a faint gleam of love that the world desperately needs now so we may move towards a better tomorrow. In your name we pray, amen.

This devotion was written and recorded by Grace Jonas.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.