Peace.

This is what I looked like early this morning when my phone started making the Amber Alert noise.  I've never heard that noise before, let alone long before I should have been awake.  It certainly was one of those noises that makes you want to shoot straight up, not something I could just forget and go back to sleep.  I've seen some people complaining about the noise today on Facebook, but I totally recognize that if it were someone I knew that went missing I would want all the help I could get to make sure the child was found as quickly as possible.

Thankfully the situation that caused the alert this morning has been resolved and the young girl has been returned back to safety.  I know that while I tried to get back to sleep my thoughts and prayers went to the mother of this young child, and I prayed she would find peace in the midst of this scary situation.  It made me think about all the children that live in places of war where the sounds of gunfire and bombs are commonplace, and just how horrible it must be to live in fear day in and out.  It took a jolting horrible sound in the middle of the night to get my mind racing - maybe it was a good thing.

We get so comfortable in life, so used to having what we need, enough to eat, clothes to wear.  Most of us have a car to drive and are capable of keeping it fueled up.  It's easy to just rest in this comfort and lose perspective on God's call for us to take care of the orphans and widows, the poor, the oppressed.  We are called to be peace makers, but also to work for justice, to actively pursue opportunities to connect with those who have been ostracized.

Sometimes it can feel overwhelming and frustrating when we get the feeling that there is not much we can do - and it is then when I think we are called to pray.  We must pray trusting that our prayers are heard and received, that God is concerned with the people on our hearts and minds (whether we know them personally or not).

Psalm 36 says:

God’s love is meteoric,
his loyalty astronomic,
His purpose titanic,
his verdicts oceanic.
Yet in his largeness
nothing gets lost;
Not a man, not a mouse,
slips through the cracks.

How exquisite your love, O God!
How eager we are to run under your wings,
To eat our fill at the banquet you spread
as you fill our tankards with Eden spring water.
You’re a fountain of cascading light,
and you open our eyes to light."

For whom is God calling you to pray this day?  For what situations or people in the world do you have a deep concern? How is God calling you out of your comfort zone to pursue peace, justice and mercy on behalf of others?

Prayer:  God you have created us in your image.  Help us to see that sacred image in others, those with whom we disagree, those whom we love the most, and those that we may never meet but are in need of your presence in their lives.  Give us courage to trust in Your response to our prayers, hear us as we again cry out for peace in the world.  Amen.