One of the highlights of my trip to Israel and Jordan some years ago was a visit to the Western Wall, or “Wailing Wall” as it is also called, the only visible remnant of the ancient Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Not only faithful Jews, but religious pilgrims from many different religions from all over the world gather at the Wailing Wall to meditate and pray. A long-standing practice is for the faithful to write short prayers on tiny scraps of paper, roll them up, and then stuff them in one of the cracks between the massive stones.
During my visit, I wrote two special prayers the day we visited the Wailing Wall and carefully and prayerfully stuffed them in the cracks. The first prayer was for a little boy whose family attended our church at that time. The mother had asked that I say a special prayer at some holy site for their son, James, who had cerebral palsy and pretty much lived in a wheelchair. What better place to offer a prayer for James, I thought, than the Wailing Wall.
