When Stories Entertwine

I had just finished reading a description of an automated call from someone calling from a prison when my telephone rang. I heard the same words I had read moments before. "If you would like to accept this collect call, please press 1. If you would like to refuse this collect call, please press 2. If you would like to block this caller from calling you again, please press..." Like the woman in the book I punched 1.

I had a hard time hearing her even with my good ear. Her voice was soft and broken, a reflection of her heart. She told me how lost and alone she felt. "Will you help me?" she asked with tears in her voice. "There is a place called 'Center of Hope' will you see if they would be willing to let me go there?"

After I hung up the phone I went back to reading my book, "Out of a Far Country". In it Christopher Yuan described how despondent he felt as he look around his cell. The walls were laden with graffiti, gang symbols and obscenities. He said, "I scanned the drawings and words on the rusty metal sheet above me, and my eyes were drawn to the far corner. The words were barely legible, and the letters were hastily scribbled. It was messy but I could make out the words; If you're bored, read Jeremiah 29:11"

These words in Jeremiah were written to a people who had been in rebellion against God and as a consequence of that rebellion they were on their way to captivity. The words in Jeremiah shows God's heart. "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD,' plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"

Lord, she asked me to help her find the "Center of Hope" please draw her to Yourself. Help me to share the promise in Your word that if she will call upon You and come and pray to You that You will listen. Lord, I ask that she would seek you with all her heart because then I know that she will finally find all that she is looking for.