Greetings!

Meet CJ, my only child. This precious photo was taken when he was less than a year old. We were living in Cleveland, Ohio and I was a divorced teenage mom of 17.

This Friday my son will be 35-years-old. This is hard for me to believe, considering that would make me over 50. Even harder for me to believe is how much has changed over the past 35 years...in my life, in my son's life, in the lives of my family, and in the world.

Yet one thing remains the same.

"We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19 (NIV)

I'm sure this birthday holds particular meaning for me because I was 35-years-old when I left behind a life of sin, shame, desperation, and lonliness and made my U-Turn toward God. Until then, I had been trying to fill the empty places in my life with everything and anything except a relationship with God.

Unfortunately, CJ was a casuality of my aimless search for happiness and meaning during my lost years.

My son was 17-years-old when my eyes were finally opened to the Truth of the Gospel. The very day I asked the Lord to change my heart, CJ was behind bars in a juvenile detention facility...the first in a long and painful history of incarceration.

Why am I sharing this today? It's cold here in Minnesota and a light snow is falling. I'm feeling melancholy and a bit adrift because as my son's birthday draws close, I have no idea where he is. Once again, we are estranged, and the pain comes like a wave and knocks me off my feet. I know I'm not alone in weeping for my child, many of us suffer in silence from choices our adult children make.

I guess I just decided not to suffer in silence today.

So I pray for my son, for other hurting parents, and for the lost children who wander the land seeking...may God give us all strength of heart and soul. May God protect us all as written in Psalm 121:7-8

"The Lord will keep you from all harm--he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."

God's peace to those who read this today.