The vigil

I went to a vigil this week - I would have written about it earlier, but I had a 20 page paper due and blogging had to be moved back a bit in the priority list!
Anyway - there was this vigil that was held for the 2,000 American soldiers that have died in the war. I went with the people that I met last week from Move-on and this really cool guy from school. Anyway, I called the media and we had the TV and newspapers there - it was cool!
So, we get there and they ask us to go and see if anyone is lost on the square and needs directions to the vigil- so Mike and I go off with this lady who tells us that she grew up homeless, was pimped out by her mom and dad - and then when she went to church she was molested by the priest! YIKES! And the thing is - she still loves God -but she is a democrat, so I am not sure that most Christians would believe that He loves her - :) So then the vigil starts - and a lady stands up and begins to read the names of those who have been killed - the list seems to settle in the air like a cloud of smoke - choking us with the names and lives that have been lost. The anger and hurt was written in the faces around me - I was overwhelmed with feelings - I couldn't believe that I had been turned down by at least 7 people when I asked them to come - 7 Christians who wouldn't come to mourn the loss of American life - I was amazed that these people - most of whom are not believers - were all there to honor life. I was amazed at how I felt as I heard these names, names I have never heard before - some of them Redneck names, some of them Arabic names, some of them African American names, some of them Hispanic names, some ladies, some men - different names, all representing lives and people who will never walk on this planet again. I was in tears - amazed at how many people had been lost! It took over an hour and a half just to read the names, we stood - watched the sun set and the candles gleam brighter - and we stood - in honor of those people - we stood - in grief in pain at the loss of life - we stood - all wanting peace - and quickly.
I was asked to pray at the end - my gay friend who knows I go to seminary asked me to pray - and I prayed that God would forgive us for our lack of love for life, that God would forgive us for not valuing Peace, that God would forgive us for this mess that we had made - and I prayed that He would allow us to value life, to value our freedom as Americans and that He would allow us to live our lives in light of the fact that life is precious.