At an Angel Tree summer camp, I was walking down the beach with a boy named Jackson.*
Jackson, about 12 years old, was eager to engage me. He told me all about school and his likes and dislikes. When I asked him about camp, he responded, “Camp is awesome … but my foster home is not. They don’t pay any attention to me.”
It suddenly dawned on me why Jackson was so ready to share his life with me: He was starved for the attention of an adult who would really listen.
That evening during a worship session, some of the campers were invited to explain what God had taught them about a Scripture verse and how it applied to their lives. Jackson came up to share about John 3:16. He said it meant that God was paying attention to him even before he was born.
I wish I could show you a picture of the giant smile on Jackson’s face as he shared that epiphany in his young life!
We’ve probably all had times in our lives when we felt invisible or unimportant, but that feeling is magnified in the life of a child with a parent in prison. But God is paying attention to Jackson and all the children like him. And He’s inviting us to pay attention, too!
Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program is a life-changing opportunity to show prisoners’ children how precious they are to their incarcerated parent – and to God. Now is the perfect time to register your church, community organization, school, or business for Angel Tree Christmas 2013. To learn more, visit www.angeltree.org.