Bitter Cold by Susan L.

  It's a frigid minus twenty-five this morning. Throw in a wind chill and it is well below minus thirty. You'd think there would be no living creatures around. However, there is a menagerie of footprints adorning the dusting of new snow on my driveway: mouse, bird, rabbit and a racoon whose steps came right up to the side door. I see it trying to get comfortable up the tree in my front yard. It should be tucked in to a nice cosy den but it's not. Lord, let it be healthy!
  My thoughts and prayers go out to those who are homeless in the city. I can't imagine the difficulty of surviving outside in such cold. Lord, may they find a warm place to go. Help those who need help seek the services available. Help them be willing to go inside. Bless those who offer these men and women shelter and a hot meal.
  Help me understand and help me be more compassionate towards the people who are as much Your children as those of us who worship in Your house on a Sunday. Help me recognize that there are a thousand reasons for people living on the streets, not just mental health and addictions but though hard circumstances. Help those who are there because of unemployment find work and stability.
  The Krasman Centre in Richmond Hill which is just north of Toronto has many visitors living in these circumstances. There are laundry and shower facilities set up for them. In Alliston there isn't the need. Our homeless are mostly youth who couch surf from place to place, lost and adrift from family for unknown reasons. Thankfully they have a roof over their heads. Bless those, too, who give them shelter.
  Lord, I pray for healing: broken minds, broken bodies, broken relationships, for families, and yes, even the little racoon. May your Grace, Your loving touch be with all.
  "And at that time your people shall be delivered, every one who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake." Dan 12:2