Lord,

You know the heart of a woman who longs for a child. Infertility brings grief as month by month, the hope of pregnancy is shattered. Adoptive parents wait while their home study is passed over by agencies and workers. International law can change without warning, laying waste to years of work and expense to bring a child home. Mothers who have lost children are longing for that heavenly day when they’ll hold one another again. The ache in the waiting can chip away at hope and faith.

Today, Lord, bring your comfort in the pain. Give patience in the waiting. Satisfy every desire with yourself—our Giver is far better than any of your gifts in this world. Show how your grace is enough. How your love is too wide and deep to comprehend. How your mercy is offered every moment. Let every mother’s heart find her joy in you.

Amen.

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
(Lamentations 3:21-24)