We need the rain but still the dreariness of the day with nude trees and a carpet of brown floral detritus and decomposing leaves reminds me that spring is still a ways off. I do love being back in the Midwest where the seasons paint such starkly different portraits as the days pass.
Maybe that is why I awoke this morning thinking, "Saturday, women and men and children awaking in modest motel rooms having breakfast and heading off to prison visitation and a few moments out of a month or a season or a year to connect with a loved one behind bars. Those are the lucky ones since they can afford the motel. Others will have been on the road since before dawn to make the trip, or been on a bus for a couple of days. Many are deeply grateful that the cost of gasoline at the moment is making the trip a bit less of a financial burden. The seasons of their lives are always flavored with the missing of their loved ones.
And in the prisons there are hundreds and thousands who wonder if their loved ones will be able to make a planned trip. And so many who have had no visitor for many years as families, (physically, emotionally and financially exhausted and faced with hundreds of miles of travel) eventually have less energy to stay connected.
Then there are weddings, graduations, reunions, birthday celebrations, funerals, holidays religious and secular where families gather painfully aware of the empty place at the table. There are families wondering how much to explain to children who wonder why other students have two parents or live with a single parent rather than a granny or why a beloved uncle or aunt never come to visit anymore.
Today, whether you are shoveling snow, headed off for a walk on the beach or watching it rain, will you pray for these families, our sisters and brothers in Christ, who long for redemption, renewal and regeneration for themselves, their families and their prodigal sons and daughters?
Carry each other’s burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2
Maybe that is why I awoke this morning thinking, "Saturday, women and men and children awaking in modest motel rooms having breakfast and heading off to prison visitation and a few moments out of a month or a season or a year to connect with a loved one behind bars. Those are the lucky ones since they can afford the motel. Others will have been on the road since before dawn to make the trip, or been on a bus for a couple of days. Many are deeply grateful that the cost of gasoline at the moment is making the trip a bit less of a financial burden. The seasons of their lives are always flavored with the missing of their loved ones.
And in the prisons there are hundreds and thousands who wonder if their loved ones will be able to make a planned trip. And so many who have had no visitor for many years as families, (physically, emotionally and financially exhausted and faced with hundreds of miles of travel) eventually have less energy to stay connected.
Then there are weddings, graduations, reunions, birthday celebrations, funerals, holidays religious and secular where families gather painfully aware of the empty place at the table. There are families wondering how much to explain to children who wonder why other students have two parents or live with a single parent rather than a granny or why a beloved uncle or aunt never come to visit anymore.
Today, whether you are shoveling snow, headed off for a walk on the beach or watching it rain, will you pray for these families, our sisters and brothers in Christ, who long for redemption, renewal and regeneration for themselves, their families and their prodigal sons and daughters?
Carry each other’s burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2
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