This morning, Dr. Don Howell from CIU shared a deeply profound exposition of Ephesians 5-6 during church. He closed with a beautiful prayer written by Amy Charmichael. In 1901, near the southern tip of India, Amy “Amma” Charmichael began rescuing children. Never marrying, she began to build a Christian community and family with the orphan children. She would continue her work in this village until 1951, when she died on the field in India. To this day, the community she built continues, rescuing children and meeting medical needs through an on-site hospital that is mostly staffed by women who grew up in these homes for orphans. Loving these children as her own, she wrote the following prayer for them that resonates deeply in the heart of this weary mother who sometimes lacks the words to express the deepest desires of her heart for her children…
Father, hear us, we are praying,
Hear the words our hearts are saying;
We are praying for our children.
Keep them from the powers of evil,
From the secret, hidden peril;
Father, hear us for our children.
From the whirlpool that would suck them,
From the treacherous quicksand, pluck them;
Father, hear us for our children.
From the wordling’s hollow gladness,
From the sting of faithless sadness,
Father, Father, keep our children.
Through life’s troubled waters steer them;
Through life’s bitter battle cheer them;
Father, Father, be Thou near them.
Read the language of our longing,
Read the wordless pleadings thronging,
Holy Father, for our children.
And wherever they may bide,
Lead them home at eventide.
lessons in lingering 