In September, high schools are once again brimming with teenagers, looking through college brochures, figuring out who to ask to the homecoming dance, and worrying about exams and report cards. But that’s not the case for every young person on the edge of adulthood; too many embark on a course that leads them to prison.
Recently I met a lovely lady who knows this all too well. She is an expert baker, she deeply loves Jesus, and her son hasn’t lived under her roof since he was a teenager. Instead of graduating from high school and fulfilling his potential, he was sentenced to life in prison for a crime he committed as a minor. Now he is about to turn 43 and is facing the reality that he may spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Like countless others across the country, this mother’s heart is broken for her child. Mothers of prisoners worry about what might happen to their sons and daughters. They pray they will find some kind of purpose for their lives. They grieve for what might have been.
Jesus lamented over Jerusalem, saying, “… how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37, NIV). God’s heart is no less tender toward people in prison. He yearns for wayward men and women, whom He tenderly knit together, to turn back to Him and find forgiveness, healing, and wholeness.
Bringing restoration to prisoners and their families is a mission close to the heart of God. Even those who will never be released can know the freedom that comes from knowing the Savior. Your support helps accomplish this mission, carrying the light of the Gospel behind prison walls. Learn more at prisonfellowship.org