This Is Not God: When Children Are Bound by Fear

There are moments in our world that make heaven weep. News of children zip-tied in an ICE raid inside their own home is one of them. The image alone, tiny wrists bound by plastic restraints, eyes wide with terror, forces us to ask: where is mercy? Where is love?

Let’s be clear: this is not God.

Scripture reminds us, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14). In that verse, Jesus sets the standard for how the most vulnerable among us should be treated with gentleness, protection, and honor. To see children treated as criminals is a violation not only of human dignity but of divine law.

When man acts in cruelty, God is not present in that act. His spirit does not dwell in fear, nor is His justice rooted in humiliation. The same God who freed Israel from bondage does not sanction the binding of children. The same Jesus who lifted a bleeding woman and defended an accused woman from stones would never turn His face from frightened families crying out for help.

This tragedy calls us not only to grieve but to act. The Church must remember its mission, to be refuge, not rhetoric; to be shelter, not silence. We are the hands of Christ, called to unbind what the world has tied.

In the end, this is a spiritual crisis as much as it is a human one. We must pray for those children, for the agents hardened by policy, and for a nation that has forgotten compassion. But prayer must move us to purpose toward justice that looks like Jesus.

Because when children are zip-tied, heaven is not silent but neither should we be.