conflict leads to children in need

It's all over the news now.  There are rebels loyal to Moscow in a province of Georgia, a former Soviet state bordering Turkey to the south.  Fighting began.  Then Russia rolled in with artillery and began air raids.  Thousands are dead.  There is so much unrest in our world.  But what I see in addition to political, economic, cultural, and religious turmoil is that children become the most severe victims in these scenarios.  Situations like this one, or like an oppressive Chinese government, rebel militia in Sudan, or street gangs in El Salvador, create widows and orphans and strangers.  And I think one could make a strong biblical and theological argument that God's heart beats for widows, orphans, and strangers.  So as we see cities in rubble thousands of miles away, let's not forget to pray for those who are having their very lives ripped to shreds.  And as Tito Colliander, the 20th century Orthodox mystic, has said, 'prayer is action.'  Let our prayer lead to lives of creative and contagious compassion.