A Prayer for Unseen Parents


Post Author: Jordan Davis


Today, we offer a prayer for those individuals and families who grieve the absence of a child due to death, infertility, or other loss. The absence of a child does not take away the coveted title of “parent.” Love for a child, seen and unseen, is what makes an individual a parent and what forms a family. We pray that all of these parents and families feel God’s peace this season.

 

In this season focused on joy and hope, we pray for the unseen parents, carrying the hope and prayer for a child out of the sight of others…

Aching as they send another Christmas card, filled with adventures and excitement but missing the laughter of a little one…

Looking past the dinner seat where a high chair should be…

Struggling to be thankful when so much seems wrong…

Grateful for a reason to miss a family party where they will feel forced to celebrate another new baby, not their own…

Tucking away the extra stocking, saved for yet another year…

Wishing they were losing sleep to wrap and build presents in the dark of night…

Avoiding the Scriptures about hope and new life, feeling forgotten by the one who is “with us”…

We lift our prayers this season for every parent who longs to be seen as just that, for every parent carrying their grief where they wish they could carry their joy. We pray for comfort, endurance, and the peace which surpasses our understanding.

We pray for all of the parents who are waiting, all who have lost, all who grasp at hope, and all who have lost faith. May Emmanuel, God with us, find a home in every broken heart. May every broken heart find rest in this perpetual season of Advent.

We lift up hidden parents searching for Emmanuel, in whose name we pray. Amen.

 


Rev. Jordan B. Davis serves as the associate pastor for youth & young adults at Kirk of Kildaire, Presbyterian (Cary, NC). This year, she will embrace and live into the Advent season with her husband and their two “cat children” and soak in the slower moments which are usually few and far between.


Image by: "Absence" by _demare.thibaut_ is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Used with permission
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