I've been waiting to write this post all day  because I wanted to share with you some time I spent visiting a prisoner in jail today.  It was quite an experience.  I showed up at about 9 AM to find a line with around 100  people in it and was told that the wait could be up to four hours.  Four hours...that's a long time to wait.

Then I found out that I couldn't bring my cell phone in the jail and since I had it on me, I decided to leave and come back later.  So I went home and then around 3:30 PM I went back to the jail and waited only two hours to get in to see my friend from church.

While I was waiting I met many women who were also there to visit husbands, boyfriends or brothers.  I heard many stories about wrong doing and also, including my friend, people who were in there due to lies and slander.

And all of this got me thinking about my suffering brothers and sisters in Christ who are often thrown in prison without serious cause.  In reality, our suffering brothers and sisters are often put in prison due to hatred - hatred of Christ Jesus and hatred of the love that Jesus brings and offers.  It really is quite amazing.

Yet today, while I waited with hundreds of others, I had the opportunity to play with a little 4 year old girl.  As we played "hide and seek", "horsey" and "hopscotch" in the waiting room, all I could think of was the children of those left behind in other countries where Christians are in prison for no crime.  I know this little girl had no idea why her father was in jail, and her joy was definitely contagious as she ran and played around in the waiting room.  She made me laugh and she made others laugh too.

Which brings me to my final thought on this today.  The Lord knows those who are His and He sees every wrong conviction and every broken heart.  He sees the lack of justice and mercy in the cases where that exists    and  He also sees the sacrifice of those who love Him and the prisoners.

And it would be very easy to say that I felt inconvenienced spending half my day waiting to get in to see my friend.  Yet, I wonder...how long does our Lord wait for those He died for to come to Him.  Years...decades....until the death bed...

Why not consider the sacrifice of Jesus and then if you know of someone in prison, visit them.  Write them letters.  We invite  you here at The Voice of the Martyrs to check out our Prisoner Alert page and invest some time sacrificing yourself to write a letter or send an email.  It will make all the difference in eternity, and in the process you will be conformed to the image of Jesus Himself, because you will learn what sacrificial love is.  I know I did today.