A WORD FOR TODAY, December 29, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
We pray you have been blessed by this daily devotion. If you received it from a friend, you can see other devotions and studies by visiting our website at www.awordfortoday.org.
Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, December 29, 2025
“Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise men, was exceedingly angry, and sent out and killed all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding countryside, from two years old and under, according to the exact time which he had learned from the wise men. Then that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; she wouldn’t be comforted, because they are no more.” Matthew 2:16-18, WEB
The numbers are disturbing. Statistics show that about ten percent of children around our nation will be sexually abused before their eighteenth birthday. In the state where I live in 2023, more than fifty thousand children were confirmed victims of child abuse and neglect, with more than a hundred fatalities. Too many of these children are not even old enough to attend kindergarten. Some of these children are sold as sex slaves. Not all child abuse is sexual, of course, but all abuse is heartbreaking and extremely damaging to the victims. Some children are abused physically, some verbally, some emotionally. Too many children are used as pawns for adults, particularly in broken relationships. Too many children are used around the world for political purposes, trained as babies to be suicide bombers or used as human shields. And of course, all too many children are never born because many are aborted for selfish and self-centered reasons.
The abuse of our babies is not new. Ancient religions used children in human sacrifice. Historically, the children of the powerful were used in their political games as they were given in marriage not for love, but to join kingdoms. Children didn’t matter; they were little more than property to be used for the benefit of the family, community, or kingdom. Children were beaten to teach them lessons or left to die when there was not enough food. I wonder, though, if we aren’t doing as much or more damage to our kids in modern times. It doesn’t seem like abuse to give our children everything they want or to tell them how wonderful they are, but it is possible to coddle our children into adults who do not know how to be responsible adults. They suffer at our hands; our over-protectiveness creates people who are selfish and self-centered, leading them to abuse others in other ways.
Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the day we remember the children who perished at the hands of King Herod. He heard that a new king had been born and he was so concerned about his own power and throne that he did whatever was necessary to ensure his legacy. Millions of children have suffered since the beginning of time, but we are particularly taken aback by the story of these babies. We imagine this to be a horrid event with blood running down the streets as thousands of children are slaughtered. The reality is that Bethlehem was a small town with an estimated population of just hundreds. Though some estimate the deaths in the thousands, it was probably far fewer. There are no secular historical accounts of a massacre, probably because it was not noteworthy that a local ruler would kill a few children. The numbers do not make the incident less horrific: one innocent life is one too many. One child suffering for whatever reason is one child too many.
What Herod did not understand is that Jesus was not born to rule as an earthly king; He was sent to bring forgiveness, to transform our lives, and reconcile us to God our Father. What we often forget is that the blood of those children is on our own hands. Our sinfulness brought Jesus into this world. We blame Herod for the death of the innocents, but he is no different than us; his sin is no greater than ours. I can’t imagine any of us laying a hand on a child to guarantee our job or position, but how often do we think of ourselves before we think of the effects of our actions on others? Do we accept that our own sin can cause another to suffer? Do we do what we think needs to be done for our own benefit, ignoring what we might be doing to our children?
As we recall those innocent lives lost, we should also remember the children who suffer every day in the violence and selfishness of this world. Even more so, let us pray that God will kill the vices in our lives that affect those around us so that we won’t bring harm to others through our selfishness. May God help us to understand how our actions affect others and think first before acting, especially when we might bring harm to an innocent child.
A WORD FOR TODAY is posted five days a week – Monday through Friday. The devotional on Wednesday takes a look at the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday. A WORD FOR TODAY is posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Word-for-Today-Devotional/339428839418276. Like the page to receive the devotion through Facebook. For information and to access our archives, visit http://www.awordfortoday.org.