We say thank you in so many ways in this country. Usually we are responding to a kindness, to an offer of help, to a generosity, to a service given. A big purple bear (going by the name of “Barnie”!) once sang “please and thank you, they are the magic words” to remind children of the importance of gratitude and courtesy. This year Prisons Week is focussing on a Samaritan man, an outsider, who was healed by Jesus and “threw himself on the ground … and thanked Jesus”. We know nothing of the man’s journey until that time, nor do we know much about it afterwards, but we do know that his encounter with Jesus as healer led him to a state of gratitude, of worship. Interestingly, he was not healed on his encounter with Jesus, but on his reaction to him in obedience (“as they went they were healed”, v14), and we also know that he alone, “a foreigner”, returned with this attitude of praise (v17)
Over the last few years in Prisons Week we have journeyed together in prayer through difficult days. We have lamented together, but with the encouragement “you are not alone”, we have struggled together with little but looked to the ravens as a sign of God’s provision, and this year while still journeying we return to say thank you. Not because we are thankful that all is again well, but because it is life-affirming for us to be thankful in all things. The prisons week film crew went out on to the streets of Brighton and experienced thankfulness IN all things by a wide range of people in a wide range of circumstances … thankfulness for family, for pets, for last chances to talk, for sustenance, for nature, for the wind in my hair, for breath.
In the midst of daily life, to pause … maybe in our pain, maybe in our joy, maybe in our healing, maybe in our ongoing dis-ease, to cry out along with all affected by imprisonment … Thank you … changes us at a soul level. It is never an easy response, but in it we are led to worship, we are led to praise, we are led onwards in the life we are saved to live in all its fullness. Jesus says to the Samaritan … “Get up and go; your faith has made you well.” Not so much “magic words” as wonderful words, words of healing and words of life. Words that I will be praying during prisons week that victims, prisoners, officers, chaplains, children, magistrates, those like me, and those who are not will all find the strength to say. AND BE MADE WELL!
Thank you.
Revd Bob Wilson
Secretary for the Prisons Chaplaincy
Prison Fellowship Devotional October 2022
Note: You can download this year’s prayer leaflet and poster on www.prisonsweek.org . This year there is also the possibility to make your own “Thank You” Prisons Week poster that you can add to all year long!
