Every visit a story. A smile, a tear, an emotion. A hope, a fear, a repulsion. A dream, a loss, a pain. And every morning in Morning Report we pray for patients, families, staff, colleagues and other loved ones who are on our minds and hearts.Whoever has been "On Call" leads our time together. We grab any written prayers from the Prayer Box in the Chapel to add to these prayers. When I am the reporter, I write the names of the prayer receivers on a slip of paper to share these with the team.
Afterwards, I have put the names in a little jar on my desk. Sometimes when I have a particularly difficult night, or if there is someone heavy on my heart, I write a prayer on a note and add them to my jar. This keeps my prayer people in the hospital and I tend not to take them home.
Since we had a graduation ceremony today, I decided to hold a little prayer ritual to let these people go!
We found an empty place in "the 'hood" parking lot, remembered the many, many people whose names were in the jar, and set them on fire (the slips of paper, not the actual people!) As the ashes developed and the smoke rose, we talked about all these folks who have ministered to us this last year. I can still smell the smoke on my hands even as I write this blog.
The man murdered at the nearby shop. The teenager driving when the car was T-boned his girlfriend was killed. The young adult who dove into a pool and was paralyzed from the neck down. The colleague who... The mother who... The baby who... The nurse... the doctor... the chaplain...
May all these people rest in Love.
May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. Psalm 141:1-3
Who's in your prayer jar at this moment?
Oh my gosh. I was gonna blog about this, but yours it perfect. I couldn't capture that time better. Thank you for honoring your people and our time with your words.
ReplyDeletebeautiful! What a great memory from the year.
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