It was mid morning and we received a phone call from Mercy Hospital. Her voice was desperate and shaken. She didn’t share her name. She’s battered, bruised and her body has been taken over with cancer. This is where she will spend her Christmas this year. We prayed with her… reminding her that she is seen and loved by God. She is fully known. We prayed for peace and comfort.   She has stayed in my thoughts and on my heart. What does this mean? How can we feel this burden for a complete stranger?   We can feel connected together through our love of Jesus. She needed someone to tell her what she really already knows—heard a pastor once say, “there’s a difference of an authentic prayer that invites God to meet us right where we are, not where we pretend to be.”   It is the language for the faithful, because we know the One who holds our pain. He never silences our cries. Even more than that, He cries with us.   There will be seasons for each of us when we cry alone. I’ve had those—pushing the people I love the very most away. But isolation – for all of us, is never our destination.   Real strength is not pretending we are fine and keeping God and others at a safe distance. Real strength is letting others into our brokenness. Real strength is confessing we need God’s rescue over and over and over again.   For God loves us all too much to despair without rescue.   This holiday may you have a table of gathered friends and family where you honestly share love. Have the scent of oranges and windy December air all around. AND have weary hearts growing glad.⁠   If you would like prayer https://www.thehousefm.com/prayer-wall/   Merry Christmas + Amy     “Come now, high king of heaven. Come to us in flesh and bone. Bring life to us who are weary with misery. Bring peace to us who are overcome with weeping, whose cheeks are covered with bitter salt tears. Seek us out, who are lost in the darkness of depression. Do not forget us, but show mercy on us. Impart to us your everlasting joy, so that we, who are fashioned by your hands, may praise your glory.”⁠   An Advent prayer from The Exeter Book c. 950⁠