Trayvon Martin. George Zimmerman.

Who are they?

Many have labeled Trayvon and George: Victim and Murderer. Attacker and Self-Defender. And much worse labels, on both accounts.

Many have tried to use the tragedy of Trayvon’s death and the sensation of George’s trial to advance one societal narrative or another.

But who are they?

Trayvon and George are not labels. They are not representatives of a class. They are not representatives of a race or a group.

They are individuals. With birthdays and classmates and friends. With plans and longings and desires. With mothers and fathers and siblings.

They are individuals – made in the image of God for the glory of God.

One of them is dead at the age of 17.

The other receives numerous death threats daily at the age of 29. He is “free.” But he and his family are in hiding.

How can we respond biblically to Trayvon’s death, to George’s trial and acquittal?

There is much we might say:

• “Try to see the events through the eyes of Trayvon’s mother, on the one hand, or George’s wife, on the other.”
• “Put away hatred; if you see Trayvon or George as representative of your enemies, love them and pray for them.”
• “Weep that 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African-American parents still must warn their sons about how to behave when followed by police.”

Let me instead offer ideas for prayer: Pairs of praise and cries to the God of the universe, thanking Him on the one hand, and beseeching Him on the other:

• Praise God that through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, not one of us must be cut off from God the Father, but whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life;
• And pray to God that He might use this tragedy in the lives of George, and George’s family, and Trayvon’s family so that they might see Him, know Him, and love Him.
• Praise God that we live in a country where we don’t let our justice system become the vehicle for political show trials;
• And pray to God that the inequities that exist in our justice system would be removed.
• Praise God for the “reasonable doubt” standard – and thus that we would rather set nine guilty free than wrongly convict one innocent;
• And pray to God that those nevertheless wrongly convicted would be cleared, and those wrongly set free would face genuine justice; furthermore, pray that we as a country might be united in seeing the wisdom in this standard, even when justice may not have been done in a specific case.
• Praise God that in the five decades since Martin Luther King, Jr penned these words – “Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty” – we have seen genuine advances in racial equality and racial harmony;
• And pray to God that the remaining, significant dark clouds of racial prejudice will finally pass away, and the fog of misunderstanding that still hovers over our fear-drenched communities will truly lift.
• Praise God that, as a country, we trust the constitutional process governing politics and law more than we trust individual political parties, elected officials, or popular demagogues;
• And pray to God that that trust- so rare in history, so rare even around the world today – would survive and grow and spread.
• Finally, praise God that in Christ “there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Colossians 3:11);
• And pray to God that the church in general, and DGCC in particular, might live out this reality, displaying that unity with Christ across ethnic differences in our thoughts, attitudes, and actions.