Missing My People

“Pray for families who are unable to see, support, or commune with their elders because of quarantine restrictions.”  April 25, Dominique Gilliard

This season of loss has been so costly in so many ways. We have heard weeping from around the world that we will always remember. When parents outlive their children, when children outlive their parents, these are tragedies mounted on top of the already immeasurable sadness of death. But there is a living grief brought about by this pandemic as well. 

Grandparents greeting their newborn grandchildren through living room windows while standing on the lawn. Parents sending postcards pictures of their children to relatives who live just across town. Beyond an inability to travel and visit with loved ones, we now face the sadness of being prohibited from our usual, predictable nearness. We can no longer partake in the fellowship that we had once presumed. 

I doubt I will again take for granted the joys of seeing my own children interact with their elders. I live with my two children, my parents and my sister. I cannot fathom the pain of being far from any of them. I know that I would be inconsolable if I could not be present with my mother and father, and my two babies would feel the same. 

Now that we are unable to gather together, we have found that our need for connection is not met by virtual meetings. We long for presence. We love phone calls and surprise cakes and flowers, but we are yet depressed by the fact that our isolation from each other is what brings health and recovery. This is much the opposite of what we have taught each other. 

These are the times when we must lean more and more on the witness of the Spirit who delivers our shared affections when we cannot physically express them ourselves. 

These are times when we discover or remember that it was Spirit who gives us love for each other that spoke and affirmed our affections in the first place. 

My prayers are with the people who are unable to be physically present with all of their people. My hope is in the God who remains unchanged as the power, vehicle, and ultimate source of our love all along.

Lord, hear the prayers of your people

Lord of Life, we come before you today, unsure of a future shadowed over by fear and emptiness. Many of us need comfort, for we have suffered loss. Many need freedom, for we have been locked away. Many of us need support, for we are without stability. Today we lift up your children who are pained by the distance between them and their precious friends and family. Sometimes we do not know how to pray. But we are offering our laments up to you by any means we are able, and we plead the Holy Spirit of knowledge and embrace. Take our feeble prayers and make them sweet and fragrant to you.

O Lord, please bind us together, that we might fellowship with one another against all odds, and find beauty somewhere in these days of such woe. 

Please lead us to works of service and kindness. Let us go out and bring gifts to the elders among us. Let us be lights of hope and reassurance as we minister to our elders who feel so alone. Lord, for many of the elder saints, your sacred spaces were a balm. Please make us more intentional and more communicative when we reach out to each other. 

Bless our brief interactions via texts and through windows. 

Be with the babies who love their grandparents, their great aunts and uncles and other elders. 

Energize the caregivers who feel overwhelmed by sharing sad news with our elders’ loved ones over the phone. 

Guide the administrators and staff of assisted living facilities toward responsive, loving care. Make a way of healing and restoration for the people who are separated by sickness and fear of transmission. 

Work a miracle for the people who are dying. Be a hedge of protection for people who have no choice but to break quarantine to attend to aging relatives.

Lord protect our elders from the enemy's schemes. With Medicare and other policy protections being threatened in the United States, the current president and his supporters stink of apathy. They exchange bowling alleys for forced euthanasia. They threaten the sick because of their greed. They stack lies on top of stupidity. They deliver word vomit when the people need a balm. Lord, our national leadership is full of people who truly do not care.  This only makes the breaks in our hearts expand. 

We are wounded by our distance from one another.  We need freedom and joy. WIll you show us how to find them in you O God? Will you reveal yourself as a steadfast source of unity for us? Our conduit for fellowship to remind us that we are never alone. Give us an increase of that feelings of togetherness that is already sourced in you. 

Make our tears more precious. Make our greetings more winsome. Give more meaning to the roles of counselor and confidant that we take on with each other. And bring us joy - with every phone call and photo. With every day new morning, a new mercy in the form of a new surprise.

We need you Lord, to be the childlike presence of innocence for our elders who cannot delight in playtime with their beloved little ones. We need you to be the experienced sage and rock of wisdom for your children who cannot visit with the elders you have given us to lean on.

Lord, we need you to help us function. Help us cling to each other in new ways. O God, Even as we are spread out by necessity, we believe that you are still making us one in Spirit, and in truth.

Lord, hear the prayers of your people. Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 78, Psalm 127

Watch: Strega Nona, a classic children’s story about a magical elder who saves the day. https://youtu.be/ULUG8IIo9-8

Strega Nona in Spanish https://youtu.be/eX_RZCkFluI

Music: I Love the Lord, Richard Smallwood

Artwork: Dudu Emmanuel // Brittsense // African Art Expo

Prayer Requests: https://forms.gle/n8SXo2TbySX3T2iE6

COVID-19 Prayer Calendar by Dominique Gilliard:

https://dominiquegilliard.com/2020/03/22/covid-19-prayer-calendars/