My last 24 hours have been spent in the company of 6 women with whom I’ve been friends for more than half my life. Though the 7 of us are quite different (ages, interests, abilities, passions), God brought us together for a multitude of reasons:

• As a support system through trouble
• To challenge one another spiritually
• For good, old-fashioned fun
• To learn from each others’ wisdom

This morning in our radio-church time together, the Scripture centered on a verse in 2 Corinthians that speaks to the frustrations of physical decline, something we 60-plus “girls” are well aware of (v. 4:16). But that downward spiral was countered with an uplifting truth: inwardly we can be renewed day-by-day through our relationship with the Lord. In other words, we don’t need external improvement to experience internal enrichment.

Today God gave me a burst of internal enrichment through one of these friends.*  “Beth” and her husband “Ron” are part of a program called Safe Families, giving temporary safe shelter to a child whose family is in crisis. The hope is that with a little short-term help, the parents can become a safe family themselves.

Beth and Ron never know when they’ll get a call to pick up a child in need. They don’t know if it’ll be a boy, a girl, a baby, a pre- schooler, or an older child. They can’t predict if he/she will be difficult or compliant, but they aren’t particular about those details. They love them all.

Safe families welcome children for as little as 2 days or as long as a year. As our group listened to Beth’s stories, someone said, “How difficult it must be to be separated from your parents, then separated again from your safe family.”

“I know,” Beth said. “But even if we have a child for just a short time, once we’ve met them, they go on our permanent prayer list.”

Bonk.

(That’s the sound of God hitting me over the head with something new.)

It’s possible that the steady, scriptural, far-reaching prayer poured into the lives of these particular children is the real reason God moves them in and out of Beth and Ron’s home, more important than the 2 weeks or 2 months of care they give them.

For example, little “Sammy” who’s with them now for just a short time, will be prayed over for 2 decades or more, as long as Beth and Ron live. They fully believe God can do what people cannot, and on that basis, when they say goodbye to their young charges, they have high hopes for their futures.

That exchange — 2 weeks in their home for 20 years of prayer — is one that will benefit the children in astounding ways, through their rest of their lives.

“The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going [for example, in and out of Beth and Ron’s home], both now and forevermore.” (Psalm 121:7-8)

* [This dear friend has asked that I not use her real name.]