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- Every year Parents Left Behind offers a seminar for grieving parents. Many of these parents grieve alone and are easily forgotten. Jesus sees them.
They pulled her out of her adultery bed and tried to kill her. While she wept on the ground they turned their backs on her and walked away.
He was a foreign warrior leading an occupation by armed force. No one saw him as anything more than an enemy.
She was a sex worker, under the table in silence— noticed no more than the family dog.
They had oozing lesions all over their bodies. They were expected to yell to give others a warning to run away.
He was a “short king” who sold out his own neighbors to be severely taxed by the enemy. It was like he didn’t exist.
She had a disease which left her with a constant bloody discharge. Everyone avoided her.
If you’ve heard the stories you know: while everyone else ignored these people, Jesus did not. These “invisible” people were not invisible to Jesus. He challenged them. He affirmed them. He loved them.
There is a precedent here that some Christians have forgotten: we are called to notice the people everyone else chooses to ignore. We are not to exclude. Rather, we must find the invisible ones and love them. That’s what Jesus did.
Who are you looking for, by the way? Who are those rejected, forgotten people God has called you to find?
Sometimes the invisible ones are not noticeably ill, different-looking or publicly disgraced. Sometimes they are hurting and broken in ways we cannot see…and many times they are right next to us.
In the years I have worked with grieving parents I hear the same things: “Most of my friends stopped calling.” “Family members ask when I’ll stop being sad.” And countless stories of awkward conversations with well-meaning people who don’t know what to say or say the wrong things.
Parents who have lost a child fall into an indescribable pain. And, sadly, they often find themselves misunderstood and alone. They become invisible.
On Saturday, August 17th, Parents Left Behind is offering their annual, free conference for grieving parents. Joined on the Journey is a safe place for hurting parents and grandparents to find support, discover resources and make new friends who understand them. It’s a place where they are not invisible.
All I ask is this: if you know someone who has lost a child, please tell them about Joined on the Journey. All the details can be found at parentsleftbehind.org
We might not understand what is happening in the hearts of hurting and invisible people, but we can help them find the support they need.